Fire in my Blood
by Ava Starr
Summary: Ea is your average teenager. The daughter of two naval officers in the fire nation, life couldn't be more bland. Fen is a young boy living on the streets. Fire-bending to survive, he waits for his sister to return.
1. Chapter 1

The day was sunny. But it didn't change much. To Fen, it was just another day. Nothing special. He was still out on the streets, still hungry, still performing fire-bending tricks for money to buy some food when he couldn't find work or steal some. Still waiting for Yanna. Yanna. What if she didn't escape, what if she couldn't? Fen tried not to think about it. He was too hungry. He spotted a family coming down the street. As they neared in front of him, he made a fire blast to get their attention.

'Same old, same old. Another boring, tediously lonely day,' Ea thought moodily, out to buy groceries. Not that she needed anything really, she just needed something to relieve her from her boredom. At least the sun was out. It's hard to feel too down when your parents are in no danger of drowning. Storms, however, were annoying. She would stay up all night worrying about them. In a slight daze, she walked through the crowded streets until a fire blast jerked her out of her reverie. Blinking rapidly to regain her surroundings, she saw a boy controlling the fire. Walking over casually, Ea stared at the fire.

Fen took a moment to size up the crowd. He had attracted a bit more attention than he thought he would, but that was okay. More people meant more money, which also meant more food. Maybe he'd even get a real meal this time. Without stealing. But, he had to get the money first. He started out small, juggling some fireballs. He did a few rounds, eyes opened, then closed them. After a few seconds, he made out that he dropped one and listened. A small gasp from the audience cued him, and he reached out and grabbed the escaped fireball with a string of fire. Using it like a yo-yo, he did some tricks with it, then swung it around to catch the other suspended fireballs. He released the fire, remembering to sprinkle in the powder before he did so, and watched the fireworks. Fireworks were always popular with big groups, especially families. Some of the audience were already rummaging in their purses, but Fen wasn't done yet. He did some fire lasso tricks, then got a volunteer to try out his fire jump rope. Throughout all of it, there was one girl in the audience, near the front, who had not changed her bored expression throughout the entire show. _She probably thinks me as just another fire-bender,_ he thought, _well, I'll show her._ He motioned to the front of the audience to step back, then brought his hands together and breathed in. He exhaled, made some hand motions, and made a lightning whip spiral out from his fingertips. He grabbed it, twirled it around and cracked it, producing a thunder-like sound. He sent the lightning whip up into the clouds where it vanished, then bowed, noting, with satisfaction, the now wide-eyed girl with fiery hair amidst the clapping.


	2. Chapter 2

'Interesting. He's good,' Ea thought, clapping unenthusiastically. The only reason she was wide-eyed was because in the crowd, someone had stepped on her foot and it had hurt. _Lightning. That's what I'm working on._ She was a good fire-bender, but not a genius. The rest of the things he had done were just parlor tricks, things the students in the academy did to amuse themselves in their free time. But it had gone over quite well. The audience of mainly families were thrilled and throwing coins into the hat next to the boy. Ea patted her pockets for her wallet. 'Damn it', she thought, 'Why the hell did I forget my wallet when I was going to find food?' There, that moron went again, stepping on her foot. Turning around to face whoever it was, she saw a fat woman around thirty-five years old with brown hair and eyes. A completely plain woman. Rudely, Ea snapped, "Watch where you put your feet!" The woman gave her an angry look, but walked off muttering something about 'kids these days. No respect for their elders,' No longer bored, but instead pissed off, Ea waited until most of the crowd dispersed before approaching the boy. "Where'd you learn fire-bending?" she asked.

What a crowd! Fen's mouth twitched slightly into a grin as he watched the coins fall neatly into the hat. He bowed again, which renewed the clapping. He noticed that some of the members of the audience were not good throws, and waited till the crowd moved on before stooping to pick up the missed coins. One of the crowd members lingered. It was the red-haired girl with the bored expression. She walked towards him as he squatted to pick up a coin. "Where'd you learn fire-bending?" Fen looked up and squinted, the sun partially in his eyes. She was taller than he first saw, but he was squatting. "Does it matter?" he replied.

"Not particularly," Ea shrugged, "Just wondering, geez". She put her hand in her pocket, bored expression back on her face as she looked at the boy squatting to pick up his money. _Can't buy food now. Need to go home and pick up that damn wallet_ she told herself, sighing exasperatingly. Lost in her annoyed and bored world, she shifted her weight onto her left foot, put her hand on her hip and snapped her fingers, creating sparks in her unconscious habit. Her train of thought from getting her wallet evolved into what she was going to eat for dinner, forgetting about the street-performer boy. The rest of the crowd was back to their shopping around her.

Fen shrugged at the girl's answer and picked up the last of the coins. He stuck the coins into one of his deep robe pockets where it accompanied his money-filled hat. He heard some snapping sounds accompanied with a slight sparky noise. He could tell by her shadow that the girl was still there. He sighed and looked up. So, um, can I help you?" he asked.

"Huh?" she asked, coming out of her train of thought, "Oh, no" she told him, trying to remember what she had been thinking about. The last thing she could recall was where her cat might be. Ea ran her fingers through her hair in an aggravated fashion before a bored look crossed her face, and she walked away slowly. "I need to find something to do with my time, everything is so boring!"

Fen watched the girl slowly walk away, and then rocked back and forth on his heels. He whistled a little, sat down, and stretched his legs. His pocket felt heavy. He didn't know how he felt. Happy? No, he'd only feel truly happy if Yanna was here. Satisfied? No, that wasn't it. Content? Yes, he was content. He got up and walked over to the nearest store with food.


	3. Chapter 3

Well, they were due to come home in about five months. Annoyingly. She had gotten money to spend for the six months they were gone. Normally, she had more than enough to last through these months, but if she didn't she could get odd jobs. Then she felt something in her shoe like a rock. Taking off the shoe, she found some coins. "Oh yeah. I put it there a week ago," she remembered. She walked over to the food shop nearest to her and asked for a fire pepper. Spotting the boy, she handed him another coin after getting the spicy pepper with her bored look on. Then she walked away, taking a bite out of the pepper.

Fen stared at the coin in his hand. Then he glanced at the girl who gave it to him. She was walking away now, casually eating her fire pepper. He looked back at the con, then scowled. He wasn't a beggar. She should've given him the money when he _earned_ it, meaning when he was fire-bending, not after the fact when he wasn't. Why didn't she give it to him when he finished? _Probably just found it_ he thought, _But I'm no beggar_. He clenched his fist and looked around. He easily spotted the fiery-headed girl and ran up to her. He grabbed the hand that wasn't holding the pepper and shoved the coin into it. "Thanks," he said, "but you're 'make-myself-feel-good-by-giving-the-beggar-boy-money' deal doesn't work for me. I'm not a beggar and I don't do charity,"

Ea just looked at him in a curious manner. "Wow, that was a long adjective," she commented dryly, "do you often throw a bunch of words together to make an adjective?" She took another bite of the pepper. _Hey, this one is actually fresh_, she thought. After a short pause of silence, Ea handed the coin back. "I have no idea what you are talking about. When'd I call you a beggar and give you charity?" Okay, sometimes she said and did things without remembering, but that hardly ever happened. She then shoved her hands in her pockets so the black-haired, black-eyed kid could not give it back.

Fen exasperatingly blew his hair from his eyes. _Boy, is she really this dense?_ He thought. "That's not the _point_," he said, "I never said that you called me a beggar, but you did give me charity. This," he held up the coin, "I didn't earn it. You just gave it to me out of sympathy. That's charity, which is something you rich people tend to do a lot,"

Looking at the kid with one eyebrow raised, Ea told the boy, "So you didn't earn it? Then why the hell were you doing those tricks? Didn't see you complaining when all those other people gave you money. In fact, you looked quite pleased with yourself,"

Fen rolled his eyes, "If you gave me the coin right after, as in, directly after the show, when I was bowing and all, _then_ I'd have earned it. But you gave it to me way after when I wasn't doing anything. Therefore, I didn't earn it," Fen glared at her, "Duh,"

Ea gave Fen a you-are-a-stupid-little-kid smirk, "Well, I couldn't find my wallet after the performance and I found the coin afterwards and saw you and thought I might as well pay you. So don't roll your eyes at me," she took another bite out of her pepper, then held out her other hand, "Hell, if you don't want it, I might as well have it back; Get another one of these peppers,"

Fen stuck out his tongue, "I can do anything I want, you're not my mom," The last bit blurted out unexpectedly. His neck throbbed and he blinked rapidly, as if he could blink the memory away. He glanced at the coin, shrugged, and handed it over, "Here you go. One Fire Pepper ready to be bought,"

Ea noticed he acted strange after he said 'mom', but she didn't press the matter. Snatching the coin back, she snapped, "Well then, thank you". Shoving the coin in her pocket, she stalked off, yet again pissed off.

Fen cupped his hands around his mouth, "You're welcome!" he yelled, then watched her depart into the food store. He figured he could peeve her further by going into the same store, but decided against it. He went into the one next to it and ordered noodles. It was a long time since he had had noodles and been able to pay for it. As he waited for the noodles to cook, he watched the girl walk off with her pepper, no doubt bored. She walked by the food place he was eating at and he made a face behind her back. She didn't seem to notice and she walked further on.

Trying to be the better person, Ea attempted not to say anything, but after a few steps, she couldn't help it. She turned around and flicked the boy off. Naturally, this caused a mild disturbance in the people around her, who started muttering stuff like, "so rude" "no respect" and "kids these days". Of course, she was every used to this sort of thing, as she always seemed to be doing things that set off that kind of response.

Fen was a bit surprised when the girl flicked him off for the face he made. He didn't even think she had noticed. Nevertheless, he returned the favor with both of his hands, triggering another scene of hushed scoldings about their behavior. The girl didn't add any more gestures and walked off. Fen watched her choice of direction with narrowed eyes. The dusty street split into three sections: straight, left and right. The girl turned right and Fen's mind raced. Why the hell did she choose right? "Oy! You're going the wrong way!" he yelled, but the girl didn't respond and continued walking.

_What does he mean 'the wrong way'? This is the way I live. I could walk it in the dark. Stupid little kid._ Ea just continued walking.

Fen turned back towards the counter. _Stupid girl_ he thought _Why was she going right? What if she met Zheng? Why the heck did he care so much? It was just some random girl. Some stupid random girl. _Fen rubbed the back of his neck and pulled the high collar of his shirt up to hide his scar.


	4. Chapter 4

Now, what to eat, what to eat. She had more Fire Peppers at home, but they weren't as good as the two she just had. There were also some porridge mixes and…yeah, that was about it. It'll be a boring dinner. Ea ran her fingers through her flame-like hair in an annoyed fashion, just thinking about what random spices she could use to make the porridge better tasting. The girl was looking at the ground in front of her feet until she heard a voice. "Got any money on you?" Ea stopped and looked up, seeing the tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed dirt colored boy named Zheng. She rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. "Do I have to go through this everytime I want to go home? No, I don't have money, if I did I wouldn't give it to you, and if you don't get out of my way, I will kick your butt, so you had better move," Ea glared at him. Okay, so he was older than her, larger than her and dangerous, but she still thought he was an annoying boy and therefore deserved her utmost contempt. The boy shifted his feet uncomfortably. Ea was the only person who talked back to him like this, and it made him very uncomfortable. "Bitch," he muttered under his breath. Ea's expression suddenly grew sour. "What did you call me?" she asked the boy. He had a knife at his side, but nevertheless, she angrily took two steps closer to him, "Get out of my way," she demanded. Zheng subsequently stomped off bitterly, muttering under his breath. _Ew_ Ea though_…his breath stank. And it took my time on that bothersome activity._ Her face once again showed her annoyance and she continued walking home.

The noodles had just finished and Fen breathed in the hot aroma. He stared at it for a moment, then at once began to eat ravenously. He was about halfway done when he felt someone standing behind him. Only one person he knew had that bad of a breath. Fen tried to hunch over, but it was too late. "Fen," the unmistakable voice came. He ignored him, but the boy grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled, "Don't ignore me, Fen. Where'd you get the money for the noodles?" Fen swallowed his noodles and answered, "earned it. For fire-bending. Now let me go". Zheng laughed and yanked Fen off his chair. "I won't be bullied by a twelve-year-old. Gimme some of that money, bastard". Fen whirled around, furious, "Say that to my face, jerk!" he shouted. Zheng grinned and leaned forward, "Bastard". Fen flew at him in outrage.

Ea heard a loud noise back the way she had come and muttered, "Not more trouble…" This sunny day was getting worse and worse. Turning back, she saw Zheng and that new kid fighting. Annoyed, she stalked over and punched each of them in the stomach once so that they bent over, out of breath. "Just what do you think you're doing?" she demanded. _Ack, that stupid kid again._

Fen looked up, "You again!" he and Zheng shouted at the same time. Zheng gave Fen a nasty look, but Fen paid no attention to it, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked back. He took off his red robe and mopped his face with it, revealing his black, high-collared sleeveless shirt and long black pants to match. Why was he so hot all of a sudden? He was probably so angry.

Ea was snapping her fingers rapidly in annoyance, sparks playing around her fingertips. She sneered at Fen, "What the hell am I doing here? I think I just stopped you from being a public nuisance". Her voice was an angry hiss. She spun around to face Zheng, "Stop annoying me! First you way-lay me, then you create a lot of noise. If you are going to beat up little kids, do it in some alley where I can't see or hear you," Her snapping switched to her thumb and ring-finger on her right hand, the sparks growing larger as she grew angrier. "Well?" she snapped at the two of them, "Are you going to bug off or am I going to have to make you?"

"Neeuh!" Fen snapped his fingers angrily back and forth at the girl, producing flames instead of the sparks she had made, "You're not the boss of me! No one is, so stop acting like you can boss me around, 'cause you can't!" he threw his robe back on, "And I'll bug off when I friggin' want to, and even if I didn't, you wouldn't be able to make me! So maybe you should bug off! Or maybe I have to make you. And who are you calling 'little'? I'm tall for my age," Zheng had made his escape during Fen's outbursts.

Ea just raised an eyebrow and stared at him, "What is wrong with you? Kid, you may be tall for your age, but I've got you beat. And what was with the snapping in my face? It is rude, ya know. Respect your elders and all,"

Fen laughed, "Hah! Maybe you should take your own advice. You're not exactly 'Miss Good-Manners' yourself. And I've tried respecting my elders, it doesn't work, so don't try that crap with me,"

"Oh, but I've got them," Ea told the boy with a dead-pan glare, "And respecting elders gets you very far," she said with a scheming smirk. Again, her face went slack, "If you have to fight, do it out of my hearing and sight, dammit,"

"I'll fight wherever I damn well want to fight," Fen said darkly, and turned away, "You should see what respecting elders got me," he muttered as he walked away.


	5. Chapter 5

Well, for all his protesting, he ended up bugging off anyway. Ea shrugged, walking off herself, the porridge seeming less and less appetizing with each step.

Fen stalked off through the crowd, not really caring where he went. His mind was fuming after the current episode. Unpleasant memories started to drift up in his mind, but he shoved them back down. His back started to flare up a little in pain, but Zheng had flung him onto the ground, so that was understandable. _What did she know?_ Fen thought bitterly, _She's just some stupid rich girl._ Fen found an empty corner and flopped down into it. He buried his head in his knees, arms over his head, and wished Yanna would come back. He was soon asleep.

Back at her house, Ea sat down in a chair, but couldn't sit still for long. She instead searched for her wallet. Finding it in the last place she looked (on top of the cabinet in the kitchen), Ea left the house to buy something other than porridge. Her trip to town was uneventful, Zheng having been scared away earlier. Now, what to eat, what to eat… Going between shops, she ended up with a liter of milk, a pack of firm tofu, peppers, and a container of various seasonal vegetables. Walking back towards home, she saw a person sitting in an alley. Curious, she approached the person. "Oh, it's only you," she said dryly, recognizing the boy.

At the sound of a voice, Fen jolted awake. Peering drowsily at where the voice came from, he saw the fiery-headed girl. "You again?" he asked sleepily, then yawned, stretching his arms above his head, hoping it would help him forget the unpleasant dream he just had, "What do you want? Or should I just bug off, o great, respect-deserving elder?" he asked sarcastically.

_What is wrong with you?_ Ea thought, "Well, if you don't want a hot meal and somewhere else to sleep besides the street, that's fine with me," Ea turned and started walking away.

_I can get my own food,_ Fen thought, and he got up. He walked down the alley, bypassing the various posters on the wall. One, however, made him stop. He stared at it for a few minutes, then sighed. "So they've reached here as well," he said quietly to himself. He looked at it some more before taking it down and shoving it down his red robe pocket. He searched for the girl. Spotting her easily, he ran up to her. _On second thought,_ "I'll take you up on that offer,"


	6. Chapter 6

"Who says I'm still offering it after you were so rude?" Ea asked with a smile, "After all, you are a wanted criminal and all," The girl shrugged. She wasn't as stupid as she came off to be. Ea had seen the wanted poster for the boy, but she didn't really care, seeing as she had enough money and the boy seemed too stupid to survive jail. She shifted the bags again before walking away towards home. Once down the street, she turned around and called back, "Gonna stand there all day, stupid?"

"I'm not stupid!" Fen called as he ran up, grinning, "I'm a dangerous criminal, remember? Wanted: One, twelve-year-old boy who won't respect his elders," he laughed a little, but then took on a quieter, more serious tone, "You won't, y'know, rat me out will you? I don't fancy going back to prison and all. Wasn't nice,"

"You're lucky no one's here, 'cause you just ratted yourself out to the world…and you are trying to tell me that you aren't in fact an idiot," Ea shrugged, opening the door whilst balancing the bags in one arm. Going inside, she gratefully set the bags down on the kitchen counter, "Those were annoyingly heavy for what's in them. You'd think there were rocks in there," Ea turned her attention towards the boy, "I might rat you out if I feel like it, which would mean you kill someone or steal something of mine. Which I trust you won't do,"

"I was whispering! If I was an idiot, I'd have screamed it out loud," Fen said, in response to Ea's first comment, "And don't worry, I won't kill anyone or steal anything. By the way, my name's Fen…but you probably know that by now if you read my wanted poster," he extended a hand, "and you are?"

Ea looked at the boy's hand, considered shaking it, but instead stuck out her tongue at Fen and turned the other way to work on unpacking her groceries. She was silent for a moment as elevator music played in her head…she'd been listening to that musician who played at the far corner of the market and played repetitive but catchy songs all day on that lute-thing, and now she had it stuck in her head. While sorting the food out into groups based on placement which to anyone else looked just like one large pile, Ea commented, "For a shrimp, you are very impolite. My name is Ea, though,"

Fen did not know what was wrong with this girl. Okay, so he had been a bit of a jerk earlier, yelling at her and all, but he was really angry and not thinking straight. And now, he was trying to be a bit more polite, and she goes and disses him and claims he has no manners. True, it was a given that he hadn't used them in about five years, but he still had some. _Oh well, _he thought, _some people just can't be helped_. "Ea," he tried out the name, "Sweet, cool name, Ea," he looked at the pile of groceries, "So, um, do you want help with some of that, or should I go do something else?" he asked.

_About time you asked, _Ea thought, "Took you long enough," she retorted, and smirked at the boy's confused look. _I rest my case. The boy is stupid._ Now, what did she need help with? Not the food, she could handle that, not to mention that she didn't really trust this Fen yet. "You can go get some water from the well," Ea said, "It's in the backyard. Don't fall in," She forgot to mention that there was no bucket, and by the time she remembered, Fen was already out the door. She went back to her grocery sorting. _Let's see how stupid you really are, Fen_ she thought.


	7. Chapter 7

Fen found the well easily enough. It was in the backyard, as Ea had said. Before he got to work on it, he scanned the backyard and its surroundings. _Oh good,_ he thought, _It leads to a wooded area. _The wooded area was more like a forest, and Fen grinned. The larger the better. He turned back towards the well. Fen knew how to work the well. His old house had had one. It was a long time ago, and Fen was surprised he still remembered. He supposed it was one of the things you didn't forget. He was about to turn the handle, but he noticed that there was no bucket. He looked around the backyard, but there was nothing but grass and the well, unless you counted the patio, but there was nothing on that either. He looked around the well as well. _Maybe it fell in_ Fen thought. He leaned over and peered into the well, but he couldn't see anything. It was too dark. He snapped his fingers until he got a well-sustained flame and surveyed the well once more, only with sufficient lighting. _That's strange,_ Fen thought, _there really is no bucket. How'm I supposed to get wa- _Fen's thoughts were cut short by voices. He looked up and around. He didn't see anybody, but the voices were loud and close by. He gulped as he realized who they belonged to. It was the police! They were asking everybody if they had seen him. _Oh, this is bad. I've gotta hide._ Fen realized that the well was the only thing that would work, but before he got in, he took off his robe and hid it a ways into the forest. Then he made his way feet first into the well, careful not to make too much of a sound. _Ea is probably going to kill me, now that I've spoiled her well water,_ Fen thought coldly _I hope she doesn't rat me out._

Ea sighed exasperatingly when she heard the knocks on the door. "You know, I was just about to make dinner," she said aloud, and she made her way to the door. When she opened it, she was greeted with the sight of two police members, one female one male. No doubt searching for Fen. "Yes, how can I help you?" Ea asked. Normally, Ea was more casual around police members, because usually they were only a little bit older than her and a lot more nervous and jittery. But these guys were much older, and unlike the middle-aged woman in the audience, if Ea tried to snap at them, not only would she get scolded, but she'd also be subject to a lot of suspicion and harassment by the other police members. "We're looking for a wanted criminal," the female officer said. Her partner unrolled a wanted poster, "Have you seen him?" Ea stared at Fen's portrait, but not too long. "Wanted? It says here that he's twelve years old. What's he being charged for?" she asked innocently. "Well, I don't know all the details, but apparently he's escaped from two different high-security locations and he is responsible for at least one murder and an innumerable amount of thefts. He's a pretty dangerous little bugger," _Oh, he's little, all right. _"Nope, sorry, haven't seen him, but I'll be sure to tell you if I do," Ea said. "Thanks for your cooperation. Have a nice evening," The police members left and Ea closed the door. _See how you like my manners now, Fen_ Ea thought. Where was Fen? Probably still out in the backyard, looking for the lost bucket. It was a good thing they hadn't checked the house. The stupid boy probably wouldn't be smart enough to hide anywhere practical.

Fen waited until he couldn't even hear the police before he clambered out of the well. Despite it being somewhat summer, Fen was shivering, his teeth chattering and his entire body drenched with the well water. He retrieved his robe and started to dry himself, but stopped. Instead, he refolded it nicely and carried it with the hand that was the least wet. He made his way back to the house, his shoes making squelching noises every time he took a step. The water had originally only come up to his abdomen when he sat down, but he had panicked a little, so he had bent over in an attempt to blend in with the bottom of the well, soaking the rest of his body. He paused at the door, unsure of whether or not Ea would like it too much if he walked in, dripping wet as he was. He made up his mind as a gust of wind blew in and he opened the door. He decided to take off his shoes, as they were the most wet, and walked into the kitchen. "Um, yeah," he explained to Ea's look that spelled out annoyance in capital letters, "There was no bucket,"


	8. Chapter 8

What. An. Idiot. Okay, so there was no bucket and Ea had forgotten to illustrate that detail, but Fen didn't need to fall in _looking_ for it. "I thought I told you not to fall in," she said in an irritated fashion, "And look, you didn't even get me any water! How'm I supposed to cook without any water?" He looked so stupid, standing there in the kitchen, dripping wet. Ea had to restrain herself from laughing.

"I didn't fall in!" Fen insisted, "Well, not on accident, anyway. I heard the police, so I got nervous and looked for a place to hide. There was nothing else in your backyard, save the woods, so I went into the well," He picked at his wet shirt, and added, "And technically, I did get you water. It's just in my clothes," he looked up, "I suppose you could wring the water out from my clothes and cook with that water. You're going to boil it anyway, it'll get rid of anything bad. Besides, you did forget to tell me there was no bucket," Fen got a chill and he shivered violently for about two seconds, which was followed by a sneeze. He did not put on his robe, which was still dry.

"Right, like I want to use water that's been on you? Forget it. We'll just have dry porridge and wash it down with milk," Ea said. She found it hard to believe that this little pinhead had committed all the crimes stated earlier, "If you're cold, why don't you just put on your robe?" she suggested. But the boy shook his head. Ea shrugged, "Fine then. I don't see what damage a little water could inflict on some coins, but if you want to just freeze or get pneumonia, be my guest," Ea finished cutting the vegetables, checked on the tofu and took out the porridge mix.

"I'm not worried about the money," Fen muttered under his breath. He found a small table and set his robe on it. He shivered again. "Where are the bathrooms?" Fen asked, "Or a shower with towels, anyway,"

"I don't think a shower would be a good idea right now," Ea commented, "Dinner's on its way to be ready," The boy sighed and rubbed his neck, "Okay, have you got some towels? Eh, please? I don't want to stay wet while I'm eating dinner," Ea looked thoughtful, "Hmm, I don't know if I want your stinky sweat on _my_ towels," she smiled at the bewildered boy, "But…since I've been _so_ nice to you today, saving your neck and all when the police came around, I suppose I could keep on being nice and let you," "Really?" the boy asked, "That's great! But, I'm going to need a change of clothes. Do you…?" Ea cut him short, "Oh, all right, I get it. I'll get you some of my dad's clothes," she put down whatever it was that she was holding and showed the boy to the bathroom. Then she went to the closet, took down some towels and handed them to him. The matter of clothes was next. She went up to her parents room and searched her dad's drawer. Luckily, he had left behind some clothes, and Ea quickly picked out a shirt that seemed small enough to fit the little shrimp. None of the pants, however, seemed capable of fitting Fen, and she didn't even think that a belt would help. Her mom didn't really wear pants, save for her naval uniform, and Ea gave an exasperated sigh and muttered, "Oh great," Reluctantly, Ea made her way to her own room and rummaged through her pants drawer. She found an old pair of brown pants that she had torn up about a year or so ago, added it to the shirt and made her way back to the bathroom. She knocked on the door and placed the clothes on the floor for Fen to pick up, then walked to the kitchen just in time to save the tofu.


	9. Chapter 9

Fen had a dilemma. He was all dry now and Ea had delivered him a set of clothes to change into, but there came the question of underwear. His underwear was pretty much soaked, and he wasn't so sure that he wanted to put them back on again. His bandages were okay, they dried out quickly, but he didn't want to have to sit through dinner feeling like he had wet his pants. But he also didn't really feel comfortable wearing pants that he had never worn before without underwear. Especially when a girl was around and particularly if that girl was Ea. _It'll depend on the pants_ Fen decided. He reached for the shirt and tugged it on first. It was white and made of thin fabric. It was a bit big and loose, but it would do, and it would help the bandages to dry even quicker if nothing was pressed against them. He rolled up the sleeves so that they reached his elbows, before taking a look at the pants. They looked a bit too tight to fit Ea's dad, and they didn't look like the sort of thing a mom would wear, if she had a mom. They were torn up around the knees. He held them up in front of him and surveyed them some more before it hit him. "Aw, gross," he said out loud, then made a face, "That does it!" Fen's mind was made up. He picked up his shorts and twisted all the water out of them, then flapped them so they'd dry. There was no way that he was going to wear a pair of girl pants without his underwear.

Ea had just finished setting the table when Fen entered the room. She smiled when he saw his expression. It was apparent that he was uncomfortable, wearing her pants, but he was trying to cover it up. He had on a blank face, one that Ea often wore when someone she didn't particularly like was talking to her, or when she was at an event that she didn't want to be at. The boy looked cleaner, but whether or not his drying had actually done anything was questionable. Her father's shirt was a bit bigger than she expected, reaching a little above Fen's knees, but he was such a shrimp anyway, the kid. "How do you like them pants?" she asked. The boy shifted uncomfortably, "U-umm, they're okay," he said carefully, "Even though, they are girl pants," "I hope that wasn't an insult," Ea said, "Actually, you don't look too bad in them. It brings out the shape of your legs," "Right…" the boy commented, and promptly changed the subject, "So, is that dinner?" he asked. "Yep," Ea answered, "Porridge and tofu, as well as vegetables, and milk," "Sounds good," the boy said simply. He eyed the table. Ea took her seat, and the boy, seeing the other seat free, sat down in it. Ea didn't eat right away, however. She was waiting to see what this street-performer boy would do.

The food actually looked quite appetizing. But then again, everything looked appetizing to Fen. He wasn't picky over food. He stared at the food first. He examined everything, the tofu, the porridge, the steamed vegetables (he noticed the fire-peppers) and the small dots that hinted of spices. It smelled good, too. And it was all for him. He would have loved to dig into it, but he held back. There was a rule that had been imbedded in his mind, a rule that would not let him touch his food until Ea had started eating. He had been told over and over again to follow the rule, he had been scolded, yelled at, slapped and harassed into following the rule. Even if the rule didn't necessarily apply, he still followed it. At home, it had been 'no eating until the cook has started eating'. At school, it was 'no eating until everyone was seated'. At the coal mines, it turned into 'no eating until the older boys had started,'. To Fen, it stayed as 'no eating until everyone else has started eating' and it wasn't leaving anytime soon. The girl still hadn't started eating. Fen looked up. She was smirking. _If she thinks she can beat me at this, she's wrong_ Fen thought. He crossed his arms and stared at her blankly, never breaking eye contact.

Ea was slightly surprised, but her facial expression betrayed nothing. _So this boy isn't going to eat right away?_ she thought _That's fine by me. Sooner or later, that boy is going to get pretty hungry, and he won't wait for me._ Ea was starting to get a little hungry herself, but she wanted to see how long this kid would last. She didn't really like the way the boy stared at her. There was no emotion in those coal-black eyes of his. He was just staring. She could tolerate it, but usually, it was her that made people uncomfortable by staring at them that way. They were the ones that broke eye contact when she glared at them. This boy wasn't looking away. He barely blinked either. Well, Ea wasn't going to turn away. There were a few minutes of silence, but the boy broke it. "Your eyes are funny," he said. "What, you got a problem with that?" she asked. "No, it's just that, one's blue and one's green," he explained. "Well, at least mine have got color. And two of them to top that," Ea commented dryly, "Yours are just black. How boring," "Yeah," Fen said sadly, "I can't even tell which part's my pupil," Ea gave a sharp breath out, and picked up her fork, smiling. She planted it in her tofu, picked it up and placed it in her mouth. She chewed it, swallowed, then grinned even more at Fen. "Well?" she asked, "Aren't you going to taste it? Or are you afraid that I've poisoned it?"


	10. Chapter 10

Fen gladly started eating his dinner. "Mmph," he said, his mouth muffled with food. He swallowed, "It's good," he said, "Really good. I haven't tasted food this good in _years_,"

"Yeah? How many years?" Ea hadn't expected this positive a reaction towards her cooking. She liked her cooking, of course, but she didn't think others would. Then again, she was feeding a boy off the streets. Naturally, he would think it was good. "Five," the boy answered, "Five. Five years," he started talking to himself, but loud enough that Ea could hear, "Five long years. One year times five. Four seasons times five. Twelve months times five. Fifty-two-point-three weeks times five. Three hundred and sixty five _days_ times five," Ea could see the boy swallow his food, his soon to be Adam's apple moving up and down. "Bravo, Fen," she said, pretending to clap, "You've displayed that you aren't _that_ stupid after all. But, you're still pretty stupid," she chewed her food thoughtfully, "Now, can you calculate the hours? How about the minutes? If you can do the seconds for me, then I'll boost your smartness level from 'stupid' to 'slightly below average,'" The boy was silent for some moments, then put his head on the table. "Does your brain hurt now?" Ea asked, "Whatever brain you may have, that is. I'm surprised you didn't land your head right into your dinner," When the boy didn't respond, Ea continued eating.

Fen wanted to laugh at Ea's comments. He wanted to laugh the memories away. But something was stuck in his throat. He thought it might be the tofu, or the porridge, but no matter how many times he swallowed, it wouldn't go away. His head hurt. It didn't just hurt, it throbbed and pounded. Images flashed in and out of his mind, his scars starting flaring up, and Fen clenched his fists and set his jaw. He wasn't going to cry. Not now, not in front of this girl, in front of Ea. Five birthdays, five Christmases, five New Year's and five New Years' Eves. The back of his neck started throbbing. There were five people in his family. Five. Mom, Dad, Yanna, Fen and Sei'yu. That was before. Now, there were only two. Yanna and Fen. And he didn't even know about Yanna anymore. Was Yanna okay? Was she still alive? Here he was, eating a nice, home-cooked dinner, and Yanna, for all he knew, could be starving and suffering. Was it right to be doing well when someone you loved could be suffering? She had been a pretty girl, Yanna. Everyone had said that. What if one of the prison guards, or more than one, thought that too, and…and… Another memory flashed up, a happy one. And as Fen remembered the happy times, when it was all five, the tears starting dripping down his cheeks, one by one onto the floor.


	11. Chapter 11

Ea finished her dinner and wiped her mouth. She glared at Fen's unfinished plate and switched to his head on the table. _So much for the compliment_ she thought as she cleared away her plates _It would've been better received if you had actually finished your dinner._ She dumped her plates in the sink, then walked back over to the dining room. She stood next to the boy and crossed her arms. Ea noticed that the boy was quivering slightly, but when she turned to see the shaking more clearly, another sight caught her attention. It was a scar, a burn-mark that spread across most of the back of the boy's neck. It was pink, meaning that it had been inflicted on him a while ago, but it also meant that it wasn't going anywhere. _That it explains his choice of clothes_ Ea thought _You can't really see it when he's wearing a high-collared shirt. _She could also make out, through the thin, white fabric of the shirt he was wearing, the outlines of several bandages across his back. She took a small step away from the back of the boy and looked at the floor. There were small stains on the floor under the boy's head. Ea watched another drop add to the stain, then rolled her eyes and looked at the ceiling. _Great_ she thought sarcastically _I've got myself an emotional twelve-year-old boy. Whoop-dee-doo._ She glanced back at the boy and sighed. She gave a loud cough, causing the boy to glance up at her. _Yep, he's been crying_ Ea said to herself. She could see the dirty tear streaks across the boy's face. Fen immediately wiped them away with his shirt sleeve. "Are the waterworks over with?" Ea asked, slightly annoyed. _I hope he didn't cry on the table. Salt water damages wood._ Ea didn't like it too much when people cried. It was both annoying and uncomfortable, because she never knew how to deal with them in a fashion that would successfully make them _stop_ crying. Fen nodded, "Yeah. Sorry," he wiped his eyes again. They were red, one of them she noticed was turning a slight blue-black color. _Probably during that fight he had with Zheng_ she reasoned. "You know, it's a bit rude to comment the chef on his meal but not finish it," Ea added. Fen glanced at his meal, "Oh. Sorry," he apologized. He brought the plate closer and began eating again. Ea raised an eyebrow. Wow, that was a quick change of atmosphere. What is this kid, bipolar or something?

Fen was thankful that Ea had interfered. He never liked crying. It was unpleasant for him, and he was pretty sure, for whoever it was that was watching him. He quickly finished his dinner, gulped down his milk and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Looking sideways at Ea, he wiped his hand with a napkin. Then he got up, picked up his dishes and put them in the sink in the kitchen where they accompanied Ea's dishes. Then, impulsively, without Ea's say, Fen began washing the dishes. Mostly, he did it to get rid of his memories, to direct his mind on something else. He was distracted, and he needed something to concentrate on. He also did it to show Ea up. He wasn't just some random street-performer boy. He had manners. He knew how to act around people of importance. He had lived in a nice house before. Uh-oh, he was drifting back again. Fen focused on the plate he was washing and scrubbed it hard with the soap rag. He didn't even notice Ea walking up behind him. He just scrubbed away at a small stain that was having problems coming off. Even when the stain finally washed off, he kept washing the same plate over and over again, checking for more stains, wiping away at close-to-invisible stains. He watched the water roam over the plate. How smooth it was, so fluid and cold. So unlike fire. You couldn't really touch fire. If you did and you weren't careful, you got burned, and it left scars. Fen checked the plate he was washing for any more stains, washed it over again, and placed it on the counter beside him.


	12. Chapter 12

"Wash those dishes any slower and you'll be lucky to finish by tomorrow night," Ea said. She laughed a little when she saw that she had made Fen jump. He turned around. "Oh, sorry" he said, "I didn't know you were there," "No kidding," Ea said blandly, "You seemed much too concentrated on your plate over there," That scar was annoying her. Did he even know that she could see it? "You know, if you don't want to be recognized by others, you should really make an actual attempt to hide your identifiable features," Ea suggested. "Like what?" Fen asked, "I'm not the only person in the world with black hair, y'know," "I know," Ea said casually, "But there are other things. Like, for instance, height, eye color and, a-hem, _scars_," Ea saw the boy straighten up rigidly, like someone had pulled an invisible string attached to his head. If there was a mirror in front of him, she would be able to see that he had that 'deer in the headlights' expression. He stayed that way for a few seconds before slumping over, his hands clutching the sides of the counter. "Dammit," he hissed, "I forgot," Ea was somehow a bit annoyed by this, "How could you forget?" she asked, "It's friggin' _huge_. You don't forget a scar that big, it covers your entire _neck_," "Look, it happened a long time ago and usually I-," the boy tried to say. "Well, weren't you just crying over something that happened a long time ago? Or were you crying because you got onion juice in your eyes?" Ea was getting more annoyed. She was snapping her fingers.

Fen resumed dish-washing, but the girl wasn't finished yet. "Don't ignore me, Fen, answer the question," This triggered a memory, but a recent one. It was Zheng. _"Don't ignore me, Fen"_ he had said. Fen didn't care. This wasn't Zheng, and he wasn't afraid of some dumb girl. He kept on washing the dishes. He could here snapping sounds and the girl's exasperated sigh. Apparently, this girl wasn't used to being ignored. Either that, or she really didn't like it. Fen was used to it. He didn't care too much if people paid attention to him or not. If anything, when people paid too much attention to him, it was a bad sign.

"Oh, _I _get it now," Ea said, "You think you can just ignore me because I'm a girl. I'm not a threat. I can't _make_ you," she leaned closer to Fen, "well, you just keep this up, and we'll see just how much of a threat I am," When he still didn't answer, Ea reached over and turned off the water. She was more than annoyed now, she was mad. Her snaps grew louder, and the sparks grew larger. When Fen tried to turn the water back on again, she reached out and grabbed his hand. She saw his face go stony, but he still didn't look at her. Ea found blackmail annoying, but being ignored by a stupid little boy was worse, "I hope you know that I can easily go over to the police station and turn you in, just like that," she threatened. It had the desired effect. The boy yanked his hand away from hers and turned around. "Why are you so freakin' _bothered _by my scar?" he asked, "If you don't like it, stop looking at it!" "It's not just that, little twerp," Ea hissed, "I'm bothered by the fact that you can just _forget_ about it. You don't _forget_ a scar," "Well, I just did, okay? You forgot there was no bucket, I don't remember me yelling at you about it, though," "Buckets are insignificant. Scars aren't," "Oh, so _now_ I'm not allowed to forget anymore? I have to remember everything now?" "Yes! You can forget random things now and then, but not your _scar_," "Maybe I _want_ to forget my scar, ever think about that? It doesn't exactly come with happy memories," "Well, you forget about your scar next time you're wearing a low-collared shirt and you can say hello to your little prison cell again,"

"Yeah? Well maybe it's this stupid shirt, then! Or maybe it's your stupid brain, then!" Fen shouted, "If you hadn't forgotten to tell me there was no bucket, maybe I wouldn't have gotten wet and maybe I wouldn't be wearing this stupid shirt and you wouldn't be bugging me about it!"

"Oh really?" Ea said loudly, "Well maybe if I didn't offer to feed you and give you a place to sleep, then you wouldn't offer to help, I wouldn't tell you to get water, you wouldn't fall in and wear my dad's _not_-stupid shirt and I wouldn't see your scar!"

"If you hadn't tried to give me that stupid coin, maybe we wouldn't have met properly and you wouldn't offer to take me in and all that other stuff wouldn't have happened! Maybe you should just let street people alone and mingle with your other fellow rich people!" Fen yelled. He was still holding the edge of the counter, and his knuckles were going white.

"Oh, everything's _my_ fault now? Well, SOR-REE! I try to pay you for your fire-bending show, I stop you and Zheng from tearing each other apart and probably saved your ass too, I let you into my house, I save your ass _again_ from the police, I cook you dinner and give you my dad's clothes, and it's all my _fault?!"_ Ea was practically screaming, "_You're _the one who screwed up your own life, going around killing people and stealing things! No wonder you went to jail twice! I oughta turn your ass in to the police, you ungrateful rat! Maybe three time's a charm and this time you'll stay in there where you belong!" "How do you know about what I did?" Fen demanded. "That's none of your business, and it doesn't matter," Ea snapped, "Point is, don't go around forgetting about things that don't need to be forgotten. Got that?"

"Stop. Telling me. What. To. Do!" Fen shouted, "You're acting like my mother!" His scar flared up crazily, fueled by the anger and annoyance he was feeling, but he didn't care. It was good that it hurt, it needed to hurt. So he wouldn't 'forget'. "She's the only one who can tell me what to do! My mom and my dad! And guess what, Ea? They're DEAD in case you haven't noticed! Which means no-one in the entire universe is going to be able to boss me around except for my wife if I even have a wife! And are you my wife? NO, you are NOT!"

"You stupid little boy! I'm not trying to boss you around, I'm trying to give you advice! And seeing as you're all alone and you've got no one else in the entire world as they're all dead, I think that I'm allowed to give you _some_ advice, don't you think?"

"Shut up," Fen seethed, "Shut up," "No, I will not shut up," Ea retorted, "If I can't tell you what to do, you can't tell me what to do," "Well, shut up anyway! I am _not_ all alone. My sister is _not_ dead,"

"Yet," Ea smirked. She was too far into the argument to go nice. This boy had insulted her, ignored her and been rude to her. She was just going to return the favor. "Shut. Up." the boy hissed at Ea, his teeth clenched together. "Make me," Ea said prissily. The boy grabbed a nearby kitchen knife but Ea just folded her arms, "Do it, and I'll scream," she said darkly, "The kitchen is right next to the door and we've got two neighbors. The door isn't very thick either, and I've got a loud voice," Actually, Ea lied about the neighbors, but she did have a loud voice. Loud enough so that if this boy did attack her, she could draw attention. The knife in the boy's hand quavered. His coal-black eyes met Ea's blue and green ones, and she could see the anger in them. It was still and quiet. Ea could hear Fen's heavy breathing. His panting grew quicker and quicker, and he swallowed. But he still didn't lower the knife. Suddenly, the knife moved in the direction of her throat, and Ea prepared to scream. Half-way however, it changed direction and Fen threw it onto the counter. Then he started taking off his shirt. "What are you doing?" Ea asked. "Thank you for the dinner, but I'm leaving," he muttered, "Here's your dad's shirt," Fen held it out as he started taking off the pants. Ea could see the many bandages on him. They were gray and torn, some of them she could see traces of blood. Fen handed Ea her pants and stormed into the bathroom. He came out a minute later, dressed in his black clothes. He made his way to the door that led to the backyard and flung it open. _Funny, when did it start to rain?_ Ea thought _Oh well, sunny days don't last forever._ She heard the door slam shut and when she peeked out from the kitchen, she could see the dark figure making its way towards the woods. "What an idiot," she said to herself, "well, if he wants to get pneumonia and die, that's fine with me. He can just join his dead parents and maybe-dead sister and not go to prison," She chucked the clothes into the laundry basket, pissed off over the last episode. _Well, at the least, he could've finished the dishes before he stormed off_ Ea thought moodily _Sheesh, what a jerk._


	13. Chapter 13

Fen's shoes hadn't dried, but he didn't care. It was raining anyway, it wasn't like it made a difference. He stomped through the girl's backyard and into the woods. The dirt had gone muddy and sticky, and he almost tripped twice, once landing on his hands, but he just got up and kept walking. He just remembered that he had left his robe in the house, but he wasn't going anywhere near that place again. He hated that girl, hated her. True, she had been hospitable, but that was as far as she went. She wasn't nice. That was for sure. Fen felt a little sad that he probably wouldn't be seeing his robe ever again. Not for the money, but for the picture he had. _At least it won't get wet and the ink won't run off_ he thought _If anything, I'll probably be joining my family soon._ Fen didn't like to think it, but sometimes he thought that what Ea had said was true. Maybe Yanna was dead. Maybe he was just wasting his time looking for her, and he should just die already. But his other mind wouldn't let him. If she was still alive, Fen didn't want to end his life only to add to her suffering. He didn't want to die and then find out that Yanna was still alive. No, he wasn't going to do that. The rain was coming down harder and Fen's shirt was sticking to his back. Nevertheless, Fen kept walking forward. Suddenly, as he passed by a tree, a dirty hand reached out, covered Fen's mouth and pulled him down. Fen gave a muffled cry and struggled to be free, but he froze when he recognized the smell of the hand. It was Zheng.

Ea didn't particularly want to do the dishes. Instead, she moped around the house, looking at the various paintings that her parents had collected. Something red caught her eye, however, and she turned to look. "Pffft," Ea muttered, "That stupid boy's left his robe here," She picked it up and unfolded it. She reached into one of the pockets and felt the money and the wanted poster. She pulled it out and read it. _Hmph, this boy's worth two-hundred gold pieces _Ea thought. She put it back in the pocket. Ea wasn't one to snoop around, but this boy had left his robe at her house, she might as well take a look through it as she had nothing better to do. She reached in the other pocket and touched more paper. She pulled out the biggest one and unfolded it. A picture of a girl stared impassively back at her. _This must be his sister_ Ea thought _They look the same._ The paper was a wanted poster for the girl, and Ea read the description out loud. "Name: Yanna, Age: 16, Wanted: Assisted escape from high-security location, escaped from high-security location, treason, theft, disloyalty to fire nation and attempted assassination." _Wow,_ Ea thought, _I guess crime must run in the family. Look at all the crap his sister's done._ Ea stared at the picture of the girl a bit longer. She pulled out the poster of Fen and compared the two. _Yep, definitely related. They've got the same nose._ Ea put away the posters and pulled out the other, smaller folded piece of paper. It was made of crisp, light paper, but it was wrinkled and Ea could tell that it had been looked at a lot. She unfolded it and looked at it blankly. It was a family portrait, Ea had one of these, and there were five people. The mother and father were sitting in chairs, the father in a uniform of some sort. The girl in the wanted poster was standing in between them, and Ea found Fen sitting on the floor near his father. But there was another person that Ea didn't recognize. It was a boy, smaller than Fen, sitting in his mother's lap. _Fen never mentioned a brother_ Ea said to herself. She looked at the portrait a bit longer, then put it back in the pocket. She refolded the robe and put it back on the table and looked out the window. The rain was pouring down even harder now. Ea sighed, and her chest ached as she thought about her parents, out on sea.


	14. Chapter 14

"Well, well, well, look who we have here," Zheng said softly, "It's the little fire rat, trying to run away," Fen glared at him, his mouth still covered by the dirt-colored hand that reeked of beer and other alcoholic drinks. He wanted to bite the hand, but the stench was too strong. "You said he had money," said another voice, "Where is it?" Fen recognized that voice. It belonged to one of Zheng's 'friends'. Fen didn't know his name. He didn't want to know. He pulled down the hand and answered quickly, "I don't have any money. Zheng lied," Zheng pulled out a knife and pointed it at Fen's throat. "I suggest you shut your trap, Fen, before I impale your throat," Zheng said in a dangerously low voice, "I didn't lie, So-gon, it's in his robe, but his robe ain't here," "Aw, man," So-gon whined, "Then why'd you drag me and Hon-yo here?" "Because, me and Fen-boy here have something we need to finish," Zheng looked at Fen, "Without your girlfriend interfering," "My girlfriend? The way she was talking to you, it sounded like you two knew each other from way back," Fen said defiantly, despite the death threat he had previously received. "Listen here, Fen," Zheng said, and he grabbed Fen and yanked him up till they were eye to eye, "We're not just finishing something. We're going to start something new. New rules. And here's the deal. We're gonna fight, but you ain't using that fire-bending crap on me, understand?" "Only if you don't use knives," Fen said hoarsely. Zheng's fingers were dangerously close to his neck, "Fine," Zheng said with a smirk and he sheathed his knives, "No knives. But here's the other thing. I know you're wanted, and you're lucky I didn't rat you out earlier. But you make one noise, one yelp too loud from your little mouth while we're doing business, anything that might attract attention, and you're going down into the prison again. Understand?" Fen managed to nod and Zheng dropped him. "One on one," Fen said as he got back up. Zheng nodded and told the two others to keep watch for anyone who might interfere. Fen had only just got his ground when Zheng threw himself at him. They wrestled for a little bit, and Fen got on top first. He started punching Zheng in the face, in the gut, anywhere he could, but it didn't last. Zheng kicked Fen off of him and pounced on him. Zheng got Fen's arms down and glared at him wickedly before yanking him off the ground and slamming him against a tree. He pinned him up so that Fen's feet couldn't reach the ground, and he paused for just a second before pounding away at Fen's stomach.

Ea didn't know why she was doing it. She was far too nice to a jerk like Fen. But still, even though he was annoying as hell, he was still a human being, and an orphan at that, and Ea figured that he would probably want his family portrait back. Not to mention, she really didn't want to do the dishes. So now, she was outside, in the rain with her rain poncho on and the robe safe under it, and she made her way into the woods that she saw the boy disappear in. She found what looked like his footsteps easily enough. He didn't do a good job of concealing them. Ea wondered how come he wasn't caught yet. He wasn't exactly a genius when it came to 'leaving without a trace'. He wasn't a genius at all. Except with fire-bending. But that wasn't genius, that was gifted. She made her way further into the woods, following the boy's trail of footsteps. As she kept walking, however, she heard scuffling noises, and, thinking that they were just animals sniffing around, ignored them. It was dark, and even though it was raining, Ea fire-bended a small ball of fire so she could see. Surprisingly, it didn't go out.


	15. Chapter 15

Fen was in pain. A lot of pain. And the problem was, he couldn't get unconscious. Every time he tried to slip away, Zheng would bring in a new barrage of punches and he would be jolted back to consciousness. His vision was blurry, and he could barely see his attacker. His nose was bleeding, he could taste the blood, and his head throbbed with the pain. Everything hurt, and Fen wished he could die and be with his family. But the part of him that believed that Yanna was still alive wouldn't let him, and he had to go through with the pain. At last, Zheng let go of his shoulders and Fen staggered. He was surprised he was still standing. But not for long. Before he could react, something sharp and painful stabbed into his right side. He got rammed back into the tree again, and the pain was so unbearable that he could only gape and gasp breathlessly. Zheng had knifed him. "No…knives," Fen managed to croak. "That's right, I know that. But rules are made to be broken, little boy," Zheng answered, "Don't worry, this knife wound won't kill you. I've missed the vital organs," he twisted the knife, "But that doesn't mean it can't be painful," The cold sharp feeling spread from the wound and Fen twitched and writhed in agony. Suddenly, the two others came running. "Hey Zheng, someone's coming, and they've got a light," "Who is it?" "We don't know, but it's coming our way," As soon as the last word was uttered, a loud cuss word was heard. Fen widened his eyes. Zheng recognized the voice too and snarled. "Oh great, _her_ again," "It's a girl?" So-gon asked. "Yeah, but we can take care of her," Zheng said. "Fen?" the voice called again, "Aw #$%. Fen, dammit, where are you?" "Too bad your girlfriend won't be able to help you, Fen," Zheng said nastily, "She'll be in too much trouble as it is," "Ea!" Fen cried, "Ea, get out of the forest! Zheng's here, Zheng-" Fen was cut short as Zheng yanked his head and bashed it into the tree, hard. Then, Zheng pulled his knife out, causing the unconscious boy to collapse, face down, into the mud.

The light didn't seem to do her good because she ended up tripping. She cussed loudly, at the tree root and at herself, and she got up again. _Ugh, where is he?_ Ea thought. The footsteps had ended a while ago, washed away by the rain and lost in the mud, and Ea was afraid she had lost his trail. "Fen?" she shouted, and promptly tripped, triggering another cuss word. She called out again, "Fen, dammit, where are you?" After a few seconds, she heard a reply to her left. "Ea! Ea, get out of the forest! Zheng's here," the rest, Ea couldn't make out, it was too muffled. Zheng was here? What did he mean? He was probably hallucinating, or probably trying to scare her away. He did sound pretty frantic and out of breath, though. Ea walked towards the voice, but she was cut short. Two figures blocked her way. _Great, more boys_ she thought to herself. She blew her wet hair out of her eyes. "Get out of my way, I'm looking for someone," she said, her voice full of contempt. The two boys didn't move. They reminded Ea of Zheng. Big, large, and smelly. One of the boys was huskier than the other, but the other boy was taller. "Sorry girl," the tall one said, "We're not moving. Either you go back the way you came, or you're going to be in serious trouble," "I'm not moving. I can fire-bend, so you two had better watch it or I'm going to kick some ass," Ea said sharply. She started snapping her fingers. Why were boys so annoying? She didn't have time to think about it because the husky boy lunged towards her. She leaped aside and started to throw a fire ball but someone grabbed her arm. It was the tall boy. "Let go of me, you rat!" she hollered, and she kicked him in the shins. The hand let go and Ea started running. She didn't get far when another figure blocked her way. This one, she recognized. "So, you really are here," she spat. "If you turn around now, we won't hurt you," Zheng replied. "Hah! I just outdid two of your thugs," Ea haughtily said. "Really? Is that so? Well I just outdid your little boyfriend, so if you're hoping he'll come to your rescue and help, you're wrong," Zheng hissed, "You're all alone, and no-one's coming," Ea gave Zheng an 'is-that-so?' look, and she was about to scream when a large hand came over her mouth. Another hand came around her waist, and she was pulled towards the husky boy. Disgusted, she struggled to free herself. She managed to bite the boy's hand, but a knife point awaited her, and she didn't scream. "He's _not_ my boyfriend," she said instead. "Oh, he isn't, is he?" the tall boy asked, "then why'd you come looking for him?" "Shut up, Hon-yo," Zheng snapped. He looked back at Ea, "It's time you stopped interfering, girl. You're going to cause more trouble for yourself than you'll want," Ea avoided the boy's mud-colored eyes and looked past him. She could make out a small, limp figure on the ground next to the tree. His black clothes highlighted him against the brown dirt. She turned back to Zheng, furious, "Beating up little boys, eh? Can't pick on someone your own size?" "I didn't know you liked them young, bitch. That's almost perverted," Zheng answered. Ea glared at the boy, not answering. From the corner of her eye, she could see the figure on the ground start to move. It was all timing, now.


	16. Chapter 16

Fen regained consciousness a few minutes after he had been downed. His head hurt and everything was fuzzy. He didn't want to lift it, but when he recognized Ea's voice, he looked up. She was surrounded by Zheng and his goons. Fen didn't think she'd be able to handle them. Not all of them at once anyway. He slowly brought his hands forward and brought them up until the fingers brushed his armpit. Then he pushed up, slowly, not just because of the pain, but he also didn't want the others to notice. Eventually, he got to his feet, and he looked up. He saw the back of Zheng's head. It was too busy insulting Ea. And it was the perfect target.

Without warning, the fireball came and breezed past Zheng, only an inch away from burning him. Ea smiled, and brought her foot around, kicking the boy who was holding her as high as she could in between his legs. He immediately let go, cursing as he did, and she aimed a fire punch at the tall boy. He ducked and brought out a dagger, but Ea quickly disarmed him. She took off his belt and tied him to the tree, using one of the navy knots that her parents had taught her. _One down, two to go_ she thought. "You won't be able to untie _that_ knot unless you join the navy," she told the tall boy. He scowled at her, but as she turned around, the husky boy aimed a punch at her and she went flying. She braced herself, expecting to crash into a tree, but instead she hit something soft. She heard an 'oof' and she quickly got up and turned around to see what, or who, she had landed in. Fen gave her a lop-sided grin as he rubbed his stomach, and replied "You're heavier than I thought," "Oh, calling me fat now?" she asked.

Fen didn't have time to answer because Zheng and So-gon were closing in on them. "Ea" he whispered. "What?" "I think our best chance would be to run," "What? If we run, these assholes will just chase us," "Not if the distraction we leave behind is big enough," "You keep saying 'we' who says I'm coming with you?" "If you don't, that's fine. I didn't say you had to, just don't blow my cover," "Whatever," Fen refocused on Zheng and his friend. Then he looked up. _I know you're up there _he called silently _I put you up there. And now, you're gonna come back down here, understand? _He made a few subtle hand motions, and waited. Ea sent a few fire bursts to Zheng and So-gon when they got too close, but they were circling around nevertheless, like two sharks. _Come on, come on_ Fen thought. Then he could feel it. The slight tingling in his fingers. It was going to come down any second now. "Get behind me," he snapped to Ea. "Wha…" "Just do it! Trust me," To Fen's surprise, Ea obeyed without further questioning. The tingling was become a vibration. _Here it comes_.

All Ea saw was the lightning coming down on top of Fen, and somehow exploding out through his fingers. She heard Zheng and the other guy cry out, their arms crossed in front of them, and she was momentarily awed by the lightning. She had never been _this_ close to lightning. It surrounded her. Ea watched as the black haired twelve-year-old spun the lightning around in a fashion that eventually created a lightning tornado, and it was here that Fen and Ea made their exit. The only thing that went through Ea's mind was that she hoped she would be home before her parents came back.


	17. Chapter 17

Fen wanted to fall. He was exhausted, and his legs felt all quivery. He wasn't sure he could stand. But he was running. Which surprised him. He had wanted to fall after he made the lightning tornado, but something in his mind told him to run. He wanted to fall as he was running, but then Zheng would catch him and Ea would probably trip over him. He wanted to fall so much, but he couldn't. There was no one here to push him. He was running too fast. His side hurt. He wanted to stop. But he couldn't. Eventually, he and Ea slowed down to a walk. He glanced at Ea. She didn't look too messed up. She was walking a bit hunched over, but that was because she got punched by So-gon. Other than that, she looked fine. Fen didn't even want to know what he looked like. A mess, he was sure. His stomach hurt, but he stood up straight anyway. He looked down. One of his shoes was missing. That was strange, he didn't remember losing it. His feet were numb with cold, and he noticed there was blood leaking down the side of his right foot. _Probably from that knife wound in my side_. Fen reached over to touch it, but instantly realized it was a mistake. As soon as he put his hand over his right side, it burned and Fen flinched, whipping his hand away. "Ack," he gasped sharply, and he sucked in through his teeth. "That jerk knifed you, didn't he?" Ea's voice asked. "Nng," he moaned in reply, and he bent over, clutching the area of his shirt that was right next to the wound. "Well that's what you get for not finishing the dishes," she said. Fen looked up to say something, but instead froze in fear. "Snake," he whispered hoarsely.

Ea was taken aback and pissed off, "What did you call me?" she asked, furious, hands on her hips, glaring down at the boy. The boy said nothing. "That is _it_!" she screeched, "How dare you call me a snake! I almost killed myself trying to get your robe back to you, and you can't show me any gratitude? You little….argh!" Ea slapped the boy, hard, on his cheek, but he still made no movement. He just stared wide-eyed. "Don't give me that stupid little look! You're such an annoying little…_bastard._ I took you in my house, I fed you, I clothed you, I even _sympathized_ with you, but you just go on being rude and impolite and a complete _jerk!_ You don't have to respect me to say 'Thank you'. Even I said thank you to you! What's so hard about saying thank you? _Huh?!?"_

Fen's cheek stung from where Ea slapped him, but he didn't dare move. He didn't look at the girl either. He was transfixed, frozen, by the snake, and he didn't take his eyes off of it. The snake was behind the girl, on a branch slightly above her head. And it was poised to strike. But only if the girl moved closer. So far, the only thing she was moving was her mouth, and the snake didn't react to when Ea hit him, so as long as Ea didn't move towards the snake, maybe the snake would leave her alone.

Ea's blood was pumping and she was breathing hard. She was even madder than she was back at the house. She was so mad, she didn't even bother snapping her fingers. The rain had caused her hair to get stuck near her eyes, and she moved it out of the way. The boy flinched at this action, and his eyes grew wider. "Don't….move….Snake," he whispered. "You weren't even listening? Ugh, why do I even bother?" Ea said darkly, and she turned around. "No!" the boy cried, and Ea only managed to get a glimpse of the snake's head before she felt herself going down.

Fen did not know he was capable of moving as fast as he did when the snake struck. He remembered Ea turning around, the snake launching out, then himself pushing Ea down and firing at the snake. He missed, and the snake struck his right arm and drew back, like a whip. The bite felt like a hot poker, racing up and down Fen's arm. It seared, and Fen thought his arm was going to explode open. It didn't, and when the snake lurched out again, Fen caught it behind the neck and blew up its head with a combination of lightning and fire. Hot snake blood splattered both of his arms and parts of his face, and he squeezed the reptilian body till it stopped writhing.

As soon as Ea realized that she was on the ground, she quickly sat up to find Fen with the snake. The two were above her and she crawled out from underneath and stood up. The boy was squeezing the snake now, though it was obviously dead, and Ea gaped inwardly when she saw the length of the reptile. It nearly reached the ground from where Fen was holding it, and though it was black, it had red stripes across its body. _Wow,_ Ea thought, _if that snake hadn't just tried to attack me, I'd take it home and have it as a pet. _She walked over to Fen, who was still strangling the snake. He was twisting it now, and she could hear the crunches of broken bones as he made his way down the serpentine body.

"I'm pretty sure it's dead by now," the girl said, "You can stop 'killing' it y'know, as it won't make a difference," Fen looked at the girl. The arm that got bit was trembling violently, and Fen dreaded coming to a conclusion that he knew was right. The snake could be poisonous, but there was always a chance that it wasn't. There were two species of coal snakes that looked alike. There was the coal viper, the poisonous one, and the coal snake, which wasn't. The only difference between the two was the number of red stripes. "Can you count the stripes?" Fen asked Ea, "Please?" The girl cocked her head, "Why can't you?" "I don't want to seal my own doom," he replied.

Ea laughed. "Look, it's not poisonous, if that's what you're worried about," she reached over and tried to take the snake away, but the boy's hands wouldn't let go. Instead, she grabbed the tail and lifted it up. "Coal vipers never get this long. And, the stripes are too wide and close together. They have to be two finger-widths apart," Fen seemed convinced, and he loosened his grip on the snake. Ea pulled it out and threw it away, but as she did, she bit her lip. She knew it was a coal viper, and she knew that their poison was lethal, but maybe, as long as the boy didn't know, the poison somehow wouldn't affect him as badly. The logic seemed to work for Ea, but when she turned around, her eyes met Fen's, and she knew that he knew it was poisonous. After a few seconds, she could have sworn that she could see them glaze over. She caught the kid just in time, and she could feel him flinch when she accidentally brushed his right side. "Please," the boy asked, "Can't I just fall?" Ea glared at him, "No, you cannot 'just fall'. You fall and you die, got that? And if you die, you won't be able to see your sister again," The boy's eyes grew focused again, "Yanna's still alive? You really mean it?" Ea sighed, and answered, "Of course she is. I wouldn't say anything if I didn't mean it." she hated lying right now, right at this moment, but it seemed necessary to keep the little shrimp going, "Come on, pinhead, we're going to get out of this forest if it's the last thing we do,"


	18. Chapter 18

"It probably will be," Fen muttered, "For me, anyway," He stood up, despite his shaking legs, and he started walking. The girl followed and walked in front of him, but as she passed, Fen whispered, "Thank you," The girl didn't turn around, and that was fine with him. The pain in his arm was persistent, but with the rain, it slowly lessened in intensity. But as he walked, he found it harder to breathe, and when he tried to take a deep breath, it got stuck and Fen strained and coughed until he had exhaled it. So then he took shorter and smaller breaths. Eventually, it wasn't enough, and Fen had to breathe quicker to get enough air into his system.

Ea wanted to get out of the forest, but she wasn't sure they could make it tonight with Fen in his condition. It was close to pitch dark and Ea guessed that it was about midnight. It felt like midnight anyway. She heard Fen coughing. What were the effects of coal viper poison? Well, she knew death was one of them. Death was a side effect of all poisonous snake bites. In the fire nation, anyway. Fire nation snakes were deadly. She heard loud breathing and she turned around. The boy looked like he was in pain. His mouth was open and he was breathing quickly. Much too quickly. He was hyperventilating. _Hyperventilation, _that_ was one of the side effects,_ Ea thought to herself. _Wait, I remember._ She recited the description of coal viper venom in her head 'Coal viper poison leads to immense pain and hyperventilation, eventually leading to the collapse of the victim. It is often here that the viper tends to begin his meal'. Well, there was no coal viper anymore, so what happened after the person collapsed?

Fen couldn't do it anymore. It was getting too hard to breathe, and everything was blurry. He could barely see where he was going, and he cut his bare foot on rocks and sticks that he could have easily avoided, had he seen them. He reached a fallen log and started to go over it. He had to lift his leg up, but when he did, the old knife cut burned and he cried out despite his better judgment. He put his foot down and placed his hands on the log, the poisoned one shaking like crazy. It didn't hurt anymore. It was just numb, and it tingled. "Ea," he called faintly, "Ea,"

Ea turned around. The boy's head drooped, his hands planted on the log, one of them she could tell was shaking. "What is it?" she asked impatiently. "I…I can't….I can't," his whole body was shaking now. "Come on, what can't you do?" she prompted. The boy leaned backwards and vomited where Ea couldn't see, then brought himself back onto the log. "I can't do it," he answered. "What do you mean you 'can't do it'? You've made it this far, why the sudden change of attitude?" Ea demanded. "I'm sorry, I just…don't think I can do it anymore. I don't think I can make it," Ea crossed her arms and lowered her eyelids. "Look, I don't mean to be mean, but we have got to get out of this forest, tonight preferably. Once we get out of the forest, I can get you some help, and then everything will be fine. We can't stop now because you _think_ you can't make it," Ea sighed and looked away, "Look, if you don't think you can make it, then I won't stop you. But I'm not going to let it get in the way of what I want to do," she looked back at the boy, "You stay here. I'll get out of the forest and get help or something," she turned and walked away.

"No, wait!" Fen called, and he quickly scrambled over the log. His foot got caught and he landed chin first onto the ground. "Oof," he grunted, then got to his feet again. "Ea, wait! Don't leave me here by myself!" he called frantically, and although his body was screaming at him to stop, he kept running after the fiery-haired girl. At last he caught up to her and he grabbed her arm for her to stop. "Let go," the girl commanded, but Fen held on. "Ea, stop, I-I'm coming with you," "Don't be ridiculous, Fen, you're sick and weak. You'll only slow me down and make yourself even more hurt than you already are. You stay here," and with that, the girl shoved Fen's arm away and started running. Fen ran after her, but eventually his legs gave out and he had to stop. Breathing so fast he could barely talk, he fell to his knees. "I don't want to be alone anymore," he managed to whimpered. He tried to get back up again but his side seared up with pain, as did his stomach, and he cried out in pain. He was still on his feet, but when he tried to take a step, he stumbled and everything went black as he finally fell.


	19. Chapter 19

Ea ran on, different emotions mixing in her head. She needed to get out of the forest, but the way Fen, the way that boy looked at her, it was so pleading. Ea had never seen anything so pathetic in her life. He acted like he really wanted her to stay. But Ea kept running. _There can't be much more forest left_ she kept telling herself. But deep down, she knew she was wrong. There was no way anyone could make through the forest in one night. She knew that, but why she kept pressing on, she didn't know. She heard a loud cry of pain which she recognized as Fen's. Stupid boy. Why did he have to storm out of the house? Then they wouldn't be in this mess. Ea wanted to blame Fen, blame him for everything, but she knew part of it was her fault too. If she hadn't tried to return his robe, then she wouldn't be in this mess, but if she hadn't misinterpreted Fen when he said 'snake' then he probably wouldn't be suffering like he was now. Ea sighed and stopped. She turned around and walked back. She hadn't gone far, only three minutes away, but when she returned, the boy was on the ground, unconscious. Ea decided to make camp where the boy was, as it would cause the least amount of trouble for her, and luckily it happened to be near a stream. It had stopped raining a few minutes ago, so Ea went around looking for some firewood. She ended up with a few sticks of somewhat dry pieces of wood, and she stacked them up and fire-bended a flame onto it. It almost went out, but Ea added more fire to it, and at last it looked like it would stay. Ea took off her poncho. It had dried a little, and Ea flapped it. _The good thing about these things is that you can just flap the water off,_ Ea told herself. When it looked sufficiently dried, she laid it on the ground next to the fire. Then she walked over to Fen and picked him up. _Wow, this kid's light _Ea thought _He doesn't feel like he's got any meat on him._ She walked over and laid him out on the poncho, along with his folded up robe, which she placed beside him. Now, with sufficient lighting, Ea could see how beat up he was. She made a face when she saw all the dried blood and vomit specks on his face, and getting water from the stream, wiped it off. He still had a black eye and a bruise on his cheek from when Ea slapped him, but at least he was clean. Ea watched as Fen's chest moved up and down as it tried to regulate his breathing rate, his throat making odd rasping noises every time he breathed. _At least he's not hyperventilating anymore._ Next, Ea started undoing Fen's shirt. It was one of the shirts that had loops across the front that kept the shirt closed. She quickly undid the loops and carefully maneuvered the shirt off of the boy's body. She had to stop herself from undoing the knots on his bandages, and instead focused on the knife wound. _Well, it missed the kidneys and the intestine, _Ea told herself, _So it's just a matter of stopping the blood. _Ea used the lower leg part of her pants, as they were muddy anyway, for bandages. She washed them in the stream and tied them tightly around Fen's waist. Then she focused on the arm that got bit by the snake. She made another face. His entire arm, from his shoulder to his fingertips, were covered in purple splotches. And it was spreading. "Great," Ea said out loud, "Now what?" The only thing she could think of was sucking the venom out, but there was no way that she was going to put her mouth on that snakebite. Unless…. Ea looked for something sharp that she could use to cut the wound open that wouldn't infect it. She couldn't find anything, and she ran her fingers through her hair in exasperation. And then she knew. Her hairpiece! It was metal, and the tip of the flame part was sharp. Ea took it off and got to work. While she cut away at the ugly snakebite, the boy did not move, however his moving chest proved he was alive. "He must be out cold," Ea muttered, "I guess it's better this way, though," she sliced open the snakebite and the blood started trailing out. She picked up the bleeding boy and carried him over to the stream, dunking his arm in the water and hoping that it was clean and wouldn't cause an infection. Ea spent most of the night in this fashion, draining away the poison in the blood. She fire-bended a small flame and found that the purple splotches were receding away from the heart and the neck, and eventually, Fen's breathing grew normal and he stopped rasping. At last, Ea decided that she had let out enough blood. His arm was still partly covered with purple splotches, but they were much fainter in color, and Ea also didn't think that the boy could survive much more blood loss. She brought Fen back to the poncho and bandaged the snakebite, as well as the areas covered with splotches. She was finally done doctoring the boy, and now she let him rest, covering him with his robe. _I can't believe this annoying little shrimp saved my life _Ea said in her head _Then again, I saved his, or what I could anyway, so now we're even._ Ea laid down on the ground, ready to sleep, hoping that the fire would keep away any wary animals. "Now it's all up to you, kid," she muttered, and then she drifted into slumber.


	20. Chapter 20

_It was his birthday. A happy day. He was turning seven, he was going to start school soon, the school that Yanna went to. They were eating dinner. A special birthday dinner. His mother was here, and Yanna and Sei'yu. And his father was here too. His father normally wasn't home, but now, Fen didn't know why, he was. At his birthday. And Fen didn't care, he was happy. It was his birthday. _

_There was a fire. Fen didn't know where it came from, but it was there. Yanna had shaken him awake 'Hurry, Fen, we need to go to the well' 'why?' 'there's a fire, and mommy and daddy said so' The fire was in the house, everywhere. Fen could hear Sei'yu crying, his mother screaming. He almost made it to the door, Yanna holding his hand, but suddenly he heard a crack and a burning beam fell on him. Yanna screamed because her brother was trapped. Fen screamed because the fire was on him. Fen tried to wriggle out, Yanna's hand reached for him, and somehow they managed to get out of the house. They jumped into their well, the water soaking their night clothes, and it was here that Yanna found out her brother's neck was on fire. It burned, and even though water was poured on it, the damage was done._

_Fen didn't know what he had done wrong. He kept saying it wasn't him, he didn't do it, but the warden didn't care. Seven lashes from the fire-whip, five if he confessed. Fen kept persisting, 'I didn't do it. It wasn't me, I swear!' Seven lashes from the metal whip. On fire. After five, the warden said he would stop if Fen pleaded guilty. He didn't, and then everything went black._

_Fen stared blankly at the bars of his prison cell. There was nothing left to do. He was caught, and inside, Fen was almost glad. He had done so many wrong things, and although he could easily justify his actions, they were still wrong. He almost felt like he deserved those three whippings, even if they did cut open the previous scars that hadn't completely healed. His prison uniform was torn where he had taken fabric to use as bandages. He didn't have to kill that guard when he escaped from the coal mines. He didn't mean to either. But apparently, the fire burn he inflicted on him was lethal. Poor guy. He wasn't too much older than him either, he was practically a boy. But he was going to holler, and Fen couldn't let that happen. Then there was the stealing. At first, it was a way to survive, but then he got caught, just once, and everyone recognized him from the posters, and all too soon he was here. Alone. His birthday was five weeks ago. He had spent it in jail. He heard a clanging. He looked up. And gasped. Yanna! But the happiness was not long-lived. Fen escaped, but Yanna stayed behind to try to help another prisoner escape, but got caught in the process. Fen would have stayed and helped, but Yanna had said "No, you've stayed here long enough. You need to get far away from here, and I'll come get you when I escape," "How will you find me?" "I will, don't worry," So he ran. _

_And he ran….and ran…….and ran…..and ran……until he tripped…over a log….but when he got up, Zheng was there….and when he pointed a knife at him, Fen fire-bended at him…..a lightning whip…..it hit Zheng, but he turned into a snake…..a coal viper…..and it lashed out and struck, right as the lightning whip snapped back straight towards him……and his mother screamed…..and his brother screamed…..and his sister screamed…..his father dead….but Fen couldn't scream….because he was enveloped by water…..and he couldn't open his mouth….even to breathe….but he needed to breathe…..so much….he gasped when his lungs felt like they would collapse….but he was still underwater….and the water gushed in…._

Fen opened his eyes. But he didn't see anything for a few seconds. Then things got slowly into focus. He blinked a few times, but he felt like he was still in his dream, underwater. He didn't breathe, but eventually he had to and he inhaled quickly. But instead of water, air filled his lungs, and Fen, blinking rapidly, remembered where he actually was and sat up quickly. A little too quickly. His head immediately started pounded painfully, and Fen groaned as he held his head with his hands, trying to squeeze the pain out. "Owwww," he moaned, "Bad idea,"

Ea looked up at the sound of Fen's voice. "You're finally awake, eh?" she asked, and she poked at the fire some more. "About time too," she gave him a wide-eyed stare and threw out her hands, "You've been out for _weeks_!" She had to stop herself from laughing out loud at the boy's horrified expression, "Are you serious?" he asked. "Oh, completely," she replied. The boy's eyes grew wider, and he looked like he was about to faint, "I'm joking," Ea informed him, "Gosh, you're so gullible. You've only been out for a day, jeez,"

"Oh," Fen said. Almost immediately after the word left his mouth, his headache renewed with more pain and he grimaced, clutching his head. He made a few guttural sounds and bent over till his head was touching his outstretched legs, hoping that somehow it would subdue his headache. It subsided slightly, but only for a few seconds, and it returned even more painful. His stomach started to act up as well, only he couldn't bend over further unless he wanted to snap his back. Finally, Fen couldn't take it anymore. "Aaauurgh!" he bellowed, and got to his feet, trying to ignore the increasing pain in both his head and his midsection. "Where're _you_ going?" the girl asked as Fen stalked a ways out from the site. "I need to move. I'm going to practice my fire-bending," he answered gruffly.

"Practice all you want," Ea jeered, "It's not like it'll do you any good," Now that Ea thought about it, her statement was practically true. The boy was already gifted, and could probably qualify as a master. His lightning tornado was very impressive, and it had saved their lives, in a sense that is. But Ea wasn't going to say any of what she thought to the boy. Not a word. She wasn't going to admit that the boy was better than she was at fire-bending. He'd only get cocky, and start thinking that he was better than her. Nah, it was better to have him holding an inferiority complex. Which was probably what he had to begin with. Why else would he be practicing if he was so good? Speaking of which, Ea figured that she herself should probably get some fire-bending practice. She still hadn't gotten the gist of lightning, and she was getting pretty bored. Getting off the ground, Ea ransacked her memory for the instructions, or rather, guidelines to bending lightning. All that she could remember was that people usually used their index and middle finger while bending, and that they made odd circular movements with them. Letting out the largest sigh that she could muster, Ea began her practice.


	21. Chapter 21

Fen was met with an obstacle. He couldn't really move his right arm, due to some effect from the snakebite. Sure, he could swing it back and forth, but he couldn't bend it or his fingers without moving them himself with his other arm, meaning that his right arm was practically useless. Fen looked at the problem optimistically. This meant that he could practice his left arm, which was his weaker arm. And it would help him fight whenever one of his arms was damaged. So Fen started on his left arm. He went through the drills that he had been taught at school, then started on some of his own exercises. Fen didn't actually fire-bend when he practiced. He saved that for when he actually needed it. Fen just did the fire-bending moves and imagined the fire, what it would look like and how it would come out. He remembered when he was very small and first saw fire-benders doing their stuff. Afterwards, he mimicked the moves, and finally his father showed him how to actually fire-bend. He had continued practicing without the use of fire the rest of his years, and it had proved very helpful when he was at 'reform' school and at prison, as fire-bending was forbidden at both places. Fen worked some more on his left arm, then switched to practicing with his feet.

"Argh! Why isn't this working?" Ea asked the air in exasperation. She panted, and tried one more time, but still nothing. No lightning. Sometimes she'd get a spark now and then, but nothing that could be respectably called lightning. She kicked up a flame wheel and punched a few fire balls at nothing in particular just to prove whatever animal was watching that she could still fire-bend, despite her lightning problems, then reluctantly walked off in search of Fen. "I'll just tell him I want to observe how lame his technique is," Ea told herself. It didn't take her too long to find the boy, he hadn't walked that far away from their site. When Ea found him, he was practicing something with his feet, his back to her. Ea waited until he got into a critical position, and sent a fireball in his direction to see how well he'd hold his balance. Surprisingly, he kept his position, but he did give a yelp of "What the…" and then executed an impressive 180-degree spin on one hand. Ea crossed her arms, putting on her most "You-are-insignificant" smirk. "What…What are you doing here?" the boy asked with slight disbelief. "Observing how lame your technique is, obviously," Ea said simply, "And on a scale of one-to-ten, it'd be somewhere in the thousands. Which means it is lame beyond lame,"

"Oh really?" Fen asked, "Well then, why don't you correct me on what I'm doing lame?" "I think your technique is beyond correcting. Nothing could un-do it's lameness," "Riiiiight," Fen said, rolling his eyes, and picked up where he had left off. He was pretty much good, foot-wise, so Fen practiced his routine. He had two, one for hard-on fire-bending and one for lightning. He practiced his fire routine first. This included many sets of punches where he would be setting off fireballs, then some foot-wheels, kicks and other fire-bending moves in a sequence. Fen tried to ignore the girl's falcon-like eyes as he went through his routine.

What an odd way to practice. _This boy is even more messed up than I thought_ Ea said to herself _who practices fire-bending without fire? _Actually, if Ea thought about it, she could almost see the fire coming out from the boy's fists and heels. But she wasn't about to tell him that. Instead, she impassively stared at the kid's movements, a blank yet bored look on her face, her arms still crossed. "You look like you're dancing," Ea commented, but the boy said nothing, obviously trying to shut out any distractions. She noticed that he wasn't using his right arm much, if at all. Ea wasn't surprised. Either it hurt like hell, or he couldn't move it because of the bandages. That, or it was the snakebite that had done it. Ea hadn't remembered paralysis as one of the symptoms. Then again, there were many things that Ea hadn't remembered. Such as how to properly bend lightning.

Fen finished both of his routines, but his head still hurt. So did everything else. His right arm was tingling now. Maybe he could move it. Fen tried to bend it. It didn't do much, but he found he could wiggle his fingers. Then again, they could just be trembling. _I guess fire-bending practice doesn't do much for my headache_ Fen thought, his head pounding. He suddenly felt nauseous, and as the feeling grew, he stumbled as quickly as he could to the nearest bush so he could puke up whatever was upsetting his stomach. When he finished, Fen kept his eyes closed until he was sure the back of the bush was out of his range of sight. His headache continued on steadily, and his arm was practically vibrating. As he had nothing better to do, Fen resumed practicing. The girl had not moved from her position.

Ea couldn't stand it anymore. She hated not knowing, especially when she actually _wanted_ to know. "Did that snake poison screw up your fire-bending, or have you used up all your fire?" she blurted out. The boy paused and stared at her, puzzled. "No, I always practice like this," he said. "Without fire? How can you practice fire-bending if you don't actually practice with fire?" The boy looked lost for a moment, then shrugged. "I dunno, I just do," his face took on a pained expression and he immediately resumed practicing "Besides, you don't burn anything or get in trouble this way," he added. "Trouble fire-bending?" Ea asked, "We're in the fire nation. I don't think fire-bending is a crime where it is most prominent, much less where it was practically invented,"


	22. Chapter 22

Fen regretted saying the last bit the second he said it. Gritting his teeth, he responding, "Well, sometimes there are places in the fire nation where you're not allowed to fire-bend," "Like prison?" the girl suggested. Fen closed his eyes and breathed out, "Yes," he said, "Like prison. And they don't take it lightly if you do happen to pop a fire-ball," "Ah," the girl paused, "Is that where you got that scar?" Talk about nosy, Fen said to himself, "Not this scar," he said, pointing to the back of his neck, "It's already healed and doesn't hurt too much anymore. But, there are others that, uh, haven't exactly…well, to put it bluntly, they still hurt," Fen rolled his shoulders around a few times and and reached down to his toes again. "Still in bandages, eh?" the girl remarked. Fen straightened up and turned around, "What are you, some kind of stalker?" he demanded, "Can't you mind your own business?" "Well, your shirt isn't exactly on, and it's sorta hard to mind my own business when yours is begging to be seen," Fen looked down, "Wow, my shirt really is off," "No way, genius," Ea said coldly, "Were you missing some brain cells when you were born or something? First you forget you have a scar, then you forget your shirt is off. What are you going to forget next? Your pants?" "Well, I've got so many bandages on that it practically feels like a shirt," Fen said defensively, "And the only reason I forgot about the scar on my neck is that it doesn't hurt anymore," "Y'know, sometimes I wonder how you ever managed to survive prison, you're so stupid," "Oh gee, thanks for caring," Fen said sarcastically. He punched forward a few times and executed an 'x' block before speaking again, "I guess it was the no-fire fire-bending practice that kept me going. It helped me momentarily forget where I was. And I thought up of some pretty cool moves in prison too. Like that lightning tornado? I'd been waiting to use that one,"

"Wait a minute, hold on," Ea said, "That was the first time you ever used that move?" she asked. "Well, I had practiced it before, but that was the first time I actually fire-bended the move, so yeah," the boy answered. "But you never even tried it out with fire before? How did you know you wouldn't just fry us on the spot?" The boy just shrugged, "I guess I just knew it would work," he responded. "Without even trying it out first? You just knew it would work?" The boy nodded slowly, "But it wasn't like I did it on a whim. I was prepared. Remember when we first met? That lightning whip?" "Yeah, I remember," Ea said, "You sent it into the sky…so that was what created the tornado? That whip from earlier?" "Yes," Ea sighed, "You stupid boy," she murmured. "'Scuse me?" "You. You are stupid. You could've killed us with that move, you could've killed me! What if that move didn't work? What if you screwed up? You were half-conscious when you were doing it," "Then I guess that means it would work regardless, if it worked when I was half-conscious, which it did," the boy said. "That's not the point," Ea argued, "Don't you ever stop and think about what might happen if your move goes wrong?" "No," Fen said simply. "That's my point. That's stu.." "Because I always know it'll work," Fen interjected. Ea threw her arms up into the air. "Aargh, I give up. You're too stupid to even know you're stupid. I still don't get how you managed to escape jail twice,"

"I didn't," Fen stated. "Come again?" Ea said. "I didn't escape jail twice," Fen repeated, "I escaped from the coal mines first, and then I escaped jail. And I didn't escape jail by myself. My sister, Yanna helped me," Fen looked away, "And in doing so, she ended up imprisoning herself," "Ah," Ea said, "So, she's the mastermind behind your great escape," "For prison, yes, but I escaped from reform school by myself," Fen said, "But I don't like to think about it, much less talk about it to you," "What, you don't trust me?" Ea asked, pretending to sound hurt, "I did, after all, save your ass multiple times," "Yeah?" Fen retorted, "Who was it that helped us lose Zheng and prevented you from ending up like me here? I think that was me,"

"No, you just got lucky," Ea stated, "You could've fried us for all we know, or you could've missed the snake twice and died on the spot," "True," the boy acknowledged, "I could've. But point is, I didn't," Fen stuck out his tongue, "So there," He walked back to their campsite. _Y'know, I really wish I could just rip out that tongue of his,_ Ea thought to herself. _He's had his ass kicked several times, but he still doesn't respect his elders. Is he incapable of cognitive development or something?_ Two minutes after the boy had left, Ea returned to the campsite. She didn't see Fen at first, but she heard splashing, and she turned to the creek. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. "Swimming," the boy replied. "In our cooking water? Are you insane? Do you want to make us sick or something?" "It's moving downstream, and I'm at the lowest part," Fen said pointedly. Not to be stood up, Ea brought up another argument, "And how are you supposed to swim in there? It's a creek. They aren't too deep". "It's deep enough for me," the boy replied, and he dunked his head underwater. When he popped up again, Ea saw that he was holding something that wriggled a lot. "What is _that_?" she asked in a slight tone of disgust.


	23. Chapter 23

"Lunch," Fen said. "I'm not eating that," Ea declared. Fen glared at her, "Who said it was your lunch?" he asked. He shocked the wriggling animal before setting it on fire. After half-a-second, he dunked the animal in the water, peeled off the exoskeleton and ate it. Chewing it thoughtfully, Fen swallowed before saying that "It tasted like fish". Fen knew it was a brave action to eat the lobster-fish in the state he was in, but when he didn't puke it up seconds later, he relaxed. His headache had lessened greatly, though his arm still tingled.

"I cannot believe you just ate that," Ea said. "It's not like it's my first time," the boy explained, "I've eaten it before". Fen kicked around in the water some more. "Have you ever seen a water-bender before?" he asked Ea. "No, what do you think I am, a world traveler?" she snapped. The boy shrugged. "Water-benders are so cool," he said, "They're all _woosh, sploom, fshmm,"_ With each sound effect, Fen imitated a water-bending move. Ea snorted, "Right. '_Woosh sploom _and _fshmm_' huh? I'll be sure to tell any water-bender I meet that's what you think of them". "It's true though," Fen protested, "That's what they're like. If I wasn't a fire-bender, I think I'd want to be a water-bender", The boy sat down on the bottom of the creek, and the water rose to his chin, "What about you?" he asked. Ea contemplated the question. If she wasn't a fire-bender? She never really spent time thinking about it. "I dunno, an air-bender I guess," she answered. "Yeah, like the avatar. They say he can fly and make hurricanes and stuff," Fen said. He leaned back. There was an awkward silence, but the boy broke it. "Do you really think the avatar's dead?" he asked. "It doesn't matter what I think," Ea stated, "If he's dead, he's dead," _What was up with all these questions? _she thought to herself. "My sister saw the avatar," Fen said quietly. "Really?" Ea asked, slightly interested, "Before he died, you mean?" "Yeah," Fen scratched his shoulder, "She was in Ba-Sing Se and she saw him flying around dropping flyers about a lost sky bison," "What was your sister doing in Ba-Sing Se?" Ea asked. "Seeking refuge. She went to a boarding school overseas at one of the colonies, but she didn't like it, so she ran away to Ba-Sing Se until the fire nation took it. She stowed away on one of the fire navy ships going back to the fire nation, and then she went looking for me". _Geez, like-sister like-brother, _Ea thought _this sister of his doesn't set much of an example._ "I don't think the avatar's dead," Fen said bluntly, "He can't be. He's the avatar. He's supposed to stop this stupid war". "The war's almost over anyway," Ea informed, "Once the fire-lord takes over the rest of the earth kingdom, or they surrender, it'll be over, and all the soldiers can come home again. And it's _not_ stupid," she added. Fen laughed, "How can you say that?" he asked, "It's the stupidest war ever started!" "Don't you dare say that!" Ea said loudly, "My parents aren't risking their lives for something that you say is stupid. There's a valid point to this war, and that's why they're fighting in it".

"What, make the entire world the fire nation?" Fen asked sarcastically, "The fire-lord's insane. You can't have a world of just fire-benders. You need someone to put out the fires, not just to start them". Fen's tone softened as he said to Ea, "I know how you feel. You don't want your parents to die for nothing. This war has already taken my dad away from me and my sister. It took away my mom and my brother too. And you know what? My brother, he was only four years old". Although the memories were hard to bring up, Fen's eyes remained dry. Ea didn't say anything, and Fen looked at his hand through the water. He soon heard a growling noise and looked up. Ea's face didn't betray anything, but Fen knew it was _her_ stomach that had grumbled. "Get out of the water, Fen, we need to look for food," she said. "What? Why do I have to help? I already ate!" Fen protested. "For the same reason I decided to help you," Ea said darkly, "Now get out before I have to pull you out myself". The boy reluctantly got out of the creek. "You know what else is cool about water-benders?" he asked as he pulled on his pants. Ea rolled her eyes, "Back on the topic of water-benders?" she asked, slightly annoyed. Fen ignored what she said and continued, tugging on his shirt, "Some of them can heal through their bending. Isn't that neat? If I could do that, I'd be a lot harder to identify, and I wouldn't have to worry about others seeing my scars, 'cause I wouldn't have any," "Yeah, you'd be the most unidentifiable, unblemished person in the fire-nation," Ea said with sarcasm, "Stop your daydreaming and look for food. Be back here before the sun goes down, otherwise I'm eating without you". "Yes, sir!" Fen said, "Anything else, sir?" "Yeah, stop calling me sir," Ea said, aiming a smack at Fen's head. He boy ducked and ran away in the opposite direction, laughing.


	24. Chapter 24

Ea almost smiled at him as he ran. She had smiled at him before, but they were mostly smirks. This time, she nearly smiled at him _affectionately._ She had to shake herself, both mentally and literally. _Stop it,_ she told herself, _He's not your brother, he's not anyone. He's just some random kid who you're helping because you don't feel like walking back home at the moment. So stop getting attached to him. One day, he's going to find his sister, and that will be that._ Finished with her self-lecture, Ea walked through the forest. She liked to think of herself as not picky, but there was no way that she was going to eat that fish thing like Fen had. Fen could eat his forest food. But that didn't mean Ea had to. After roughly an hour and a half, Ea made it to the end of the forest, and as she had predicted earlier, when they first had entered the forest, there was another town on the other side. Luckily, she had left her wallet in her pocket, so she wouldn't have to worry about any work. She bought a loaf of bread, some cheese, a knife to cut it with, a jug of water and a bunch of Fire peppers. By the time she got back to the campsite, the sun was starting to set, and Fen still wasn't there. Ea started eating anyway. When the sun was about halfway down, Ea heard footsteps, and the body of Fen came into view. "Took you long enough, what'd you do, get lost?" Ea asked snappishly.

"Guess what I found!" Fen said excitedly, and he showed her a glass jar filled with sand. "Sand?" Ea asked disbelievingly, "You spent five hours looking for _sand?_ What do you plan to do for dinner? I'm not sharing with you". Fen put the jar in his pocket and lifted up a lizard and two scorpions that he had shocked to death and speared. "You're going to eat _that?"_ the girl asked. "Why not? I've eaten them before," he replied. He stuck the sticks with his catch over the fire, and they quickly cooked. He snapped the head off of the lizard before roasting it some more, and ate it. He downed the two scorpions, though he did wait after the first one to make sure it wasn't going to decide to come back up again. His right arm lay uselessly against his side while he performed all his tasks left-handedly. He noticed the bread and cheese that Ea was eating. "Where'd you get that?" he asked.

"Town at the end of the forest," Ea replied. She tried not to look at Fen as he ate his dinner. The world was now devoid of two scorpions and a lizard. "It's a good thing I left my wallet in my pocket," she continued, "Otherwise, I'd probably be stuck eating what you're eating," "It's not bad," Fen said defensively, "I left my money in my robe, and that's at your house," "No it's not," Ea said, and she lifted it up from where Fen was sleeping, "It's right here. This stupid thing is the reason why I'm here," she handed it over to Fen. "Gee, thanks," Fen said. He anxiously felt around the pockets. "Don't worry, I left all your pictures in there. Your money's still there too," Fen's face filled with relief, but then he looked suspiciously at Ea, "You looked at the pictures, didn't you?" he asked. "Yes. What did you expect? You left it at my house, so I decided to take a look through it," Ea popped a Fire pepper in her mouth, "Get to know you a little bit. Though, I'm normally not one to snoop,"

"Right," Fen said. He took out his family portrait anyway and looked at it, sucking the burn marks on his fingers that he had received from earlier. The portrait was from so long ago, everyone looked so little, even Yanna. He took out Yanna's wanted picture and compared the two. He laughed a little when he saw the similarities and differences. "What are you laughing at?" Ea asked. "Oh, nothing," Fen said dismissively, "My sister just looks so small in this picture, and so big in this one". He folded the two pictures up and put them in his pocket. "You look around her age," he told Ea. "How old is your sister?" she asked. "Fifteen," Fen replied. "Figures, I am fifteen," the girl said. "Oh". Fen took out his sand jar and poured some sand out. He drew some designs in it with his finger before remembering something. "I'm going to be thirteen tomorrow," he stated happily.


	25. Chapter 25

"Good for you," Ea said. She had finished her cheese, but she still had some bread left over. She decided to save it for tomorrow and she stowed it away in the bag, along with her Fire peppers. "A birthday in the forest. That should be pretty memorable," she said. "It beats the one I spent in prison," Fen said glumly, still tracing pictures in the sand. "Can't argue with you there," Ea admitted. "Yeah, prison sucked." Fen stated. "Well," Ea said tentatively, "If you hadn't committed those crimes, you probably wouldn't have gone there. It's your own stupid fault." "Yeah," Fen agreed, "If I hadn't lingered so long at that dumb shop, I never would've been identified." "What were you doing at this 'dumb shop'?" Ea asked. Fen was quiet for a minute before quietly saying "Nothing." But Ea was pretty sure 'nothing' wasn't the answer. What was one of the crimes listed? Thefts. "You were stealing something, weren't you?" she asked.

Even though it was none of the girl's business what he was doing, Fen relented a little. After all, she had saved his life. "Well….maybe there was something in there that attracted my attention," he said vaguely. "So you stole it?" Ea pushed on. "I tried to, anyway," he replied, "But I got caught, apparently." He didn't mention the embarrassment and panic he had felt when the shopkeeper told him he needed to pay for the knife. He didn't mention how he had tried to put the knife back, how the shopkeeper had asked if he didn't know he was supposed to pay, how at that moment the police had walked into the store and immediately recognized him from the posters. He didn't mention burning the shopkeeper's hand when he had grabbed Fen's shoulder to prevent him from running, how he had literally blown up the store in an attempt to escape, how he had run straight into a back-up police squad, how he had tried to fire-bend his way out of it, how he had almost escaped when something hard had hit him and he had met darkness, to wake up in a jail cell. No. He didn't say any of that. "What were you trying to steal?" Ea asked. "A knife," Fen replied sheepishly.

"You risked your life and freedom over a knife?" Ea asked in disbelief, "Why would you need a knife when you can just fire-bend?" "Look, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and the knife was really cool looking," Fen argued, "But now all that's done and gone. I don't need to worry about it anymore." "Great. So, what else did you do?" Ea asked.

"Look, it's none of your business what else I did," Fen said brusquely, sweeping up the sand, "I already told you how I got caught, that should be enough, shouldn't it?" "No," Ea said impishly, "Enough is never enough." "Well, you're not telling me anything new about you," Fen retorted. "I don't have as fascinating a childhood as you did," Ea replied simply, "I mean, what's to tell? I am the only daughter of two, fire nation naval officers who are currently out at sea. The end." "Naval officers?" Fen asked, smiling, "Bellybutton officers?" "You know what I mean," Ea said sharply, "But seriously, that's about all there is to me. You've seen my house, where I live, all that. I'm a pretty boring person when it comes to personal histories." "Oh come on. You've got secrets, I know you do," Fen said, "Everyone has secrets."


	26. Chapter 26

Oh, I've got secrets alright. I'm just not going to tell you. Ea tossed her head, "Everyone is a very general word. I, for one, am not interested in telling you more, because there is nothing more to tell." "Bullshit," Fen said, "If you won't tell me, I'll just guess." "Guess all you want," Ea said, "You won't get close."

"Okay. Hmm, let me see," Fen thought, "Well, you were obviously well off, and since both of your parents are in the navy and both deployed, you probably really are the only child, seeing as they couldn't really get busy a lot. But, on that note, you were probably really lonely. And if both parents are in the navy, they must've been deployed a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Which means you were alone a lot. And, you're also very apathetic. Or, you have emotions and stuff, you just don't care about things. Everything annoys you except the things you do yourself, but you're also impulsive. You do things so you won't have to do other things, but that's just your cover up. Your excuse. You get bored a lot, meaning you have little motivation in life. Because your parents are gone. I bet you don't get half as bored when your parents are around. They make you do chores and stuff, and they spend time with you. So, so far, I have deduced that you spent a lot of time by yourself when you were small, that your parents are very, very busy, and that you get bored a lot when your parents aren't here."

"Wow. I am truly impressed," Ea said sarcastically, "Is that all you can 'deduce'? Please. Anyone can deduce that. Your attempts to be smart are sickening."

"I'm not done yet." Fen said, "that's only the outside. There's the inside. The things you're hiding. You try to make out that what you're hiding is on the outside, but it's not. Because you were alone a lot, you had lots of time to build a shell around what you were most afraid of people finding out, which would be things like what you were scared of, what you really, really wanted, and how you actually felt. You say you can be polite, that you have manners, and you probably do, but it's just another layer you add to your shell. The way you act with me is also a layer. You try to show that there's nothing on you to hide, that you don't care what people think of you. You try to stay strong, so you mouth off at everyone and take on a persona that you're invincible, that you're always right and everyone else is just annoying and stupid except for your parents. But you're not invincible. You're human, which means you have human weaknesses."

It was as if this boy could see through her with his black eyes. Like they could see into her, find out her secrets. He was right, surprisingly, but Ea betrayed nothing. He was mainly guessing. There was no way he would figure anything significant out unless she told him. And she planned on keeping her mouth shut.

Fen was silent for a moment. He was contemplating a theory, but it seemed to make sense. "I think, I know what your secret is," he said at last.

"Oh?" Ea asked, slightly amused, "Go ahead, Mr. Detective. What do you think my nonexistent secret is?"

"You have to be right, for one," Fen said.

"Oh jeez, that's not a secret," Ea said, "Is that what you've spent the last minutes figuring out? You must be really stupid."

"Two, you're scared of thunderstorms," Fen added, ignoring her comment, "And three, you're scared of water. Not water, like, shower water, but water as in ocean and lake water. Especially ocean water, because your parents' lives depend on it. Which would go the same with thunderstorms. Because whenever there's a thunderstorm, you think that there's a thunderstorm at sea as well, and I know that thunderstorms are the number one cause of death for soldiers in the navy. Which happen to include your parents."


	27. Chapter 27

Ea's mind froze. He was correct. And what was worse was that she was wrong, for once. He wasn't stupid. He was smart. He had figured out her fears. Even though she had dealt with them by labeling them as annoying, she was still freaked whenever a thunderstorm happened. She had been so sure that Fen wouldn't figure it out, but he did. And it made her mad. More than mad. It infuriated her. She was going to explode. And she did. "Oh, whoop dee doo, the great Fen has figured it out!" she screamed, "How do you feel, now that you know my deepest inner secrets? You plan to blackmail me? Tease me? Kill me? Oh no, you've already tried that. But you didn't do it. Maybe I should try to figure out _your_ deepest darkest secrets."

Fen's ears rang from Ea's outbursts and he instantly felt guilty. She was right. Who was he to try to figure out what she was scared of? He was being a real jerk. "Look, I'm sorry," Fen said apologetically, "I guess I got too carried away."

"What are you scared of Fen?" Ea continued shrieking, ignoring his apology, "Hmm, let me figure out! You're a stupid ass bastard who's only living relation in the world is your sister. Oh, I know! You're scared that your sister will go and bite the dust. You're scared of being alone. You're scared you'll get caught and put in that prison. Maybe this time they'll take you to the boiling rock! I heard that that prison's inescapable. Gee, that wasn't too hard! I figured all that out in a few seconds. What took you so long, Fen? Are your brain cells too scared to work? Oh, that's right, you don't have any brain cells! Your parents forgot to give you some before they died. You know what you should really be scared of? You should be scared of me. Because once you piss me off, I can easily go to the cops and spill the beans."

"If you do that, you'll get put in prison too," Fen pointed out, "For assisting a criminal."

"You think I can't make up a story? And even if you tried to refute it, it's my word, an honest girl with two navy parents, vs. yours, a criminal boy who steals, murders and lies. Who do you think they'll believe?" Ea turned around, out of steam, and flopped onto the ground to go to sleep. One last puff of steam remained, and Ea muttered, "I hope your sister drops dead," before forcing herself to sleep.

Fen stared at the sleeping girl, his mind and body in a state of shock from Ea's comment. After a few seconds he switched his gaze and stared at the fire, yelling at himself silently. _Stupid, stupid, stupid, _he shouted mentally, _you're a stupid, idiotic, son-of-a-bitch, bastard, jerk, retard, stupid, stupid, stupid asshole!_ In a fit of self-fury, he electrocuted the sand he had been playing with. It glowed, and Fen remembered his discovery earlier. Glass. Abandoning his self-punishment, he poured out the rest of his sand from the glass jar he had made earlier and started to heat it up. He bent the fire this way and that, taking the sand with it, until it started to create shapes. He was at a loss at what to make, but eventually decided on a dragon and reshaped the sand. It took him nearly the entire night to make it, since he was adding details such as scales, and when he had finished he nearly burned his fingers off carrying it to the creek to cool it. But the end result was stunning. There was no colored sand around, so the entire sculpture was clear, but it was still pretty. Fen took the dragon out of the water and walked back to the campsite to admire it. For a first time, Fen was impressed with himself. He had never even _seen_ a dragon. But his grandfather had, and when he was still alive, he had told Fen and his sister all about them. Fen's younger brother, Sei'yu, didn't get to benefit from these stories, as he was born after their grandfather had died. The sun started coming out, and Fen, figuring that sleep would be useless, stood up so he could start his fire-bending practice. He left the glass dragon next to Ea before making his way to his practice spot, sucking his throbbing, blackened fingertips as he did.


	28. Chapter 28

Ea woke up from a dreamless sleep and stretched her arms before sitting up. Something caught her eye, and she turned. She had to stop herself from gasping out loud. She picked up the glass sculpture and turned it around. It was a dragon, a very detailed dragon, made of clear, see-through glass. "Fen?" Ea asked tentatively, "Where did you get this?" When there was no answer, Ea looked around at the campsite. No Fen. He had run off. "Oh, Fen, you are in for it big time," she muttered. Pocketing the dragon, she briskly walked towards where Fen had practiced yesterday, hoping he was there again. He was. Ea aimed a fireball at him, causing him to leap around to face her. "Okay, Fen, 'fess up," she ordered, "Where'd you get the dragon and the money to pay for it?"

Fen looked at Ea. "What are you talking about?" he asked, "I didn't steal it, if that's what you're thinking." "Oh, so you paid for it? With whose money?" "I didn't buy it either." "So what did you do? Borrow it?" "No! I made it." For a moment, there was silence, and then Ea laughed. "Like hell you did!" she said. She shot another fireball at him. Fen sidestepped it. "You stole it, didn't you? Who did you steal it from? You think you can get on my good side by stealing me something? Well, you're wrong." She started a barrage of fire bursts, and Fen made a fire shield. When she had finished, he tried again, "No, seriously, I made it. Last night. When you were sleeping."

"Liar!" Ea yelled. She snapped a circle of sparks and flung them towards Fen. The boy fire-bended them back towards her. "I'm not lying!" he yelled in return, "I really did make it!" "Prove it!" Ea caught the circle of sparks and created them into a wheel of fire before spinning it at Fen like a frisbee. The boy grasped it, sprinkled something out of his pockets and slammed the fiery disc into the ground. Immediately, a shapeless glass tower-in-the-making rose from the dirt.

"That proof enough for you?" Fen asked. He hurried to the creek and splashed water on the skinny pillar of glass for it to cool. His fingers wanted to stay in the water some more, but Fen had gotten burns before, and they could wait.

"Right…sand plus fire equals glass," Ea mumbled. She glared at Fen. "Congratulations. You caught me being wrong, again. Happy now? I'm glad you're excited at the prospect of being a smart-ass jerk." She turned and sulked back to camp. She had gone about half-way when she felt fingers on her arm. Looking down, she tried to yank her arm away from Fen's grip. "Get your dirty hands off of me," she ordered, "Or is that below you?"

"What do you want, Ea?" Fen asked, "Do you want me to leave you, is that it? Do you want me to turn myself in? Suicide? Do you want me to kill myself? Drown myself, get myself bit by that snake again, what? What do you want?"

"I want you to let go of my arm," she said snappishly. His grip tightened. "Okay, besides that," he said, "I know you're mad. At me. But what do you want?" Staring into those black voids made Ea uncomfortable. How could someone have such dark eyes? Like the entire iris was just pupil. Finally, she could take no more of the staring contest. "Let…GO!" she yelled, and she hooked her fingers under his hand and pulled up while at the same time pushing against his chest with her other hand. His grip was released and the double impact caused the boy to lose his balance and he fell on his back onto the ground.


	29. Chapter 29

As soon as his back made contact with the ground, Fen immediately doubled over in pain. His back felt like it was on fire, as if all his scars had opened up. He clutched his right side as well, because the knife wound was flaring as well. His stomach hurt too. It was like all the wounds he had decided to hurt all at once. He was in a lot of pain, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth. He stayed still, he was in too much pain to move, and silently wished the pain away.

Ea almost felt bad for what she did. Almost. _He deserved it, _she thought, _I told him to let go of my arm, but he didn't._ But as she looked down at the motionless boy, folded in pain, she began doubting herself. She didn't have to push him so hard. And the ground he had landed on was pretty rocky. She wasn't going to apologize, but she didn't want to leave him like this either. She stayed put, and decided to stay until he stood up. Then she'd make a snide comment and leave it at that. But the boy didn't get up. Ea could hear his breathing, and figured that he was probably in a lot of pain. Suddenly, Ea noticed something dripping down the inside of Fen's shirt. Something dark. Too dark to be just sweat. "Dude, what did you land on?" she asked.

Fen stiffened. "Shh," he whispered, "I thought I heard something." "Yeah, I asked you a question," Ea retorted. "No, I mean, something something." Fen stood up, painful as it was, and started walking towards the campsite. Ea followed him, but he didn't pay attention to her. No one was around, but Fen could tell that he wasn't alone. "Well? What is it? Did you hear a squirrel or something? Is that why you told me to be quiet?" Fen didn't say anything at first, but after a few seconds of silence, he relaxed, "Yeah. Maybe it was a squirrel," he said. And that was when something sharp embedded itself into his back.


	30. Chapter 30

Ea wasn't one to scream. She rarely did, and mainly used it as a threat. But when she saw the arrow poking out from Fen's back, she couldn't help herself. She let out a short shriek and turned in the direction that the arrow came from. The boy had stumbled a little when he was struck, but he didn't fall. He ripped the arrow out and spun around. Almost immediately, the clearing that had made their campsite filled with several police members. There were around ten, two archers and the rest Ea assumed to be fire-benders. They quickly spread out in a circle, Fen and Ea in the middle. _Shit,_ Ea thought, _that rat Zheng must've told on us._ Ea felt Fen's back brush against hers, his blood staining the back of her shirt. "That better wash off," she warned him.

"We're surrounded by ten people who want to jail us and you're worried about stains?" Fen asked disbelievingly. His back hurt, a lot, and Fen could tell that his scars were going to take even longer to heal. But that didn't matter. They needed to get out of here, which was going to be tricky. "Don't run and no unnecessary violence will be needed," one of the fire-benders warned. Oh great, Fen thought, after all that Yanna went through, I'm just going to be back in prison again. She doesn't even know how I'm doing or not. An idea struck Fen. "Oy, I'm going to try something," he whispered to Ea, "But I need you to cooperate."

"What?" Ea asked, "Define 'cooperate'," Fen didn't answer, and to Ea's horror, he stepped out, hands raised, and said, "Okay, you got us." The fire-benders looked at him quizzically, the archer's keeping their arrows poised on him. "Is this some sort of joke?" one of the fire-benders asked. "Joke? No. It's my birthday. So, I'm going to let you take us in." Two fire-benders looked at each other, shrugged, then motioned to the others, "Alright, arrest them then. The boy we know is bad, but maybe we'll drop some jail time for good behavior. Charge the girl with assist in criminal activities, though, as well as lying to police members." Two fire-benders each grabbed Fen's and Ea's hands and handcuffed them. Then, with the archers keeping them in check, the police led the two-some back to the town. Ea struggled, but one of the police members slapped her, and she bit her lip to keep from yelling something rude. Fen, what are you thinking? she screamed silently.

When they reached the police station, the lead police member pointed at a bench for the two to sit. The chief was a middle-aged man with graying hair. He squatted in front of Fen and sneered, "Your birthday, huh? Biggest piece of shit I've ever heard. I know you. You're one of those young criminals. I've seen a lot in my age. Think they're so clever, but each one I've caught has gone to jail. 'Cause you see, I'm cleverer. I know your scam. Because I know you've got a sister. And if you go to jail, you'll just meet up and plan another grand escape. But I've got some bad news for you, you punk. That sister of yours? She's dead. How do I know? I've got a brother who works at that prison she stays at. She went and bit the dust a week ago. Starved to death. Refused to eat the food. Her own stupid fault. I guess she didn't trust her brother enough to stay alive. That, or she didn't love him enough. So there's your birthday present, boy." The chief spat in Fen's face, but the boy was too shocked by the news to even flinch. He just stared into the man's dirt brown eyes, and it wasn't until the man slapped him that his mind finally came back. "That should show you some respect, insolent brat!" the chief hissed, "Didn't your parents tell you it was impolite to stare before they died?" Fen looked impassively at the man's shoes before shaking his head, "You know what? I think you're full of shit. You think you're cleverer than me? You should know that I'm a very stupid boy," Fen looked up, "However, I am also a very good fire-bender who could easily melt through those pitiful metal handcuffs and punch you smack in the face, sort of like this…"


	31. Chapter 31

As soon as the chief was downed, Ea seized her chance. Leaping up, she kicked the nearest fire-bender and kneed the next. Something hot burned against her back, but Ea found that it was only Fen, melting her handcuffs so her hands would be free. Even though Ea was eager to fight, especially after the trashy way they had treated them, she found that she didn't need to. Fen seemed to be doing a fine job all by himself. A large fire-sweep took care of most of the fire-benders, and before she knew what was happening, an arm was around her waist. A voice she recognized as Fen's told her to hold on tight, and all of a sudden, the roof of the building was blown off and Ea was being lifted up into the air. When they were a few yards up in the air, though, Ea felt herself slipping. "I told you to hold on!" Fen exclaimed, struggling to keep her from falling. "I didn't know you meant literally!" Ea shouted back, but she reluctantly hugged Fen's stomach-area. It was a good thing she wasn't afraid of heights. "Drop me and you are _dead_," she snapped.

"Distract me and we're _both_ dead," Fen retorted. He snapped a few bolts of lightning back down at the building before shooting higher into the air. At a certain height, Fen started across the town. "Where are you going?" Ea asked. "Back the way I first came. There's a forest there. We can hide there. No use in staying in a forest you were caught in."

"Right, that would make absolutely no sense at all," Ea said sarcastically. She looked down at the world as it passed by. They had now passed the town. "So, let me guess, this is a new move you hadn't used before until now?" "Yeah. I hadn't even thought of it before either. It was more of a whim thing." "Wait, you thought of this two seconds before you used it?" "Pretty much." "Don't you ever think??" Ea shouted. "Is that a rhetorical question? I'm more of an action person." "No kidding." Suddenly, Ea heard a whizzing sound and Fen started to falter. He quickly rose again, however, Ea could see he was in pain. "What was that?"

"Those goddamn archers. Ow, stupid, %*&$^* arrow! Ugh, Ea, can you fire-bend at them?"

"Oh, sure. I can totally fire-bend and hold on to you at the same time. Not a problem." Ea said with even more sarcasm, "I'll just go pull out my extra set of arms so I can make that possible."

"You know, you could've just said no. You would've saved your breath," Fen said exasperatingly. He turned around so he could properly see the archers, grimacing a little from the arrow. "Okay, Ea, now you'll have to really hold on. I'll try to get rid of them as quickly as I can, but if you let go or slip, it'll be your own fault."

"Great. I'm glad to know that my life is in my own hands now," Ea said. Nevertheless, she tightened her grip around Fen's waist and brought her other arm around his shoulder. "You good?" Fen asked. "We'll see," Ea replied. She felt his arm leave her waist, but the grip she had on Fen seemed to be strong enough and she didn't slip. She watched as Fen brought out two bolts of lightning from one hand and shot them down on the two archers. Only one of them got hit, though, and the second one shot another arrow at them. Fen burned it before it got close, but the force that he had done it with caused Ea to lose her grip on his shoulder and she started to slide. "Fen…" Ea said, unintentionally heightening her pitch as she tried to grab his shoulder again. Another arrow forced Fen to dodge sharply to the side that Ea was hanging off of and she almost fell. She grabbed his shoeless foot at the last minute. The boy dipped sharply, and Ea shrieked before she could stop herself. "Hurry up and down him, will you?" she shouted shrilly.

"I'm working on that, okay?" Fen shouted. Jesus, this guy was hard to hit. He kept moving everywhere. And it didn't help that Ea was dangling from his leg. The archer had stopped moving, and Fen thought 'finally'. But he quickly found out that the archer was merely aiming. And Fen realized that his target was Ea. Before he could strike at the archer, the arrow was already loosed, and Fen blew out a stream of fire from his mouth. It burned the arrow, but a second one immediately replaced it. Fen jerked out with his left hand to burn it, but as he did he felt the grip on his foot loosen until it disappeared altogether.


	32. Chapter 32

"FEN!" Ea screamed as she fell. Even though she found life boring, she didn't want to die. Not like this. "GODDAMIT FEN, I'M FALLING HERE!" she screamed again, but half of it she knew wasn't even comprehendible. Ea felt like she was going to pass out. Her eyes were opened and she could just barely see Fen reaching for her.

"HANG ON, EA!" Fen shouted as he swan dived after her. He reached for her still outstretched arm, his fingers just barely brushing against hers when an arrow caused him to jerk his arm back. The ground was coming dangerously close to Ea, and Fen fire-bended lightning from his feet to make him fall faster. "Hang on, girl, just hang on!" Fen yelled, and he grabbed her arm and pulled, shooting lightning from his mouth to propel them upward. He hugged the girl to him, lowered his feet and shot up in the air. Another arrow flew towards them, but Fen sent a streak of lightning through and past it, where it made a bee-line for the archer and electrocuted him. Fen yanked the arrow out of his foot before zooming into the forest.

When the twosome finally landed on the ground, Ea slapped Fen. "Do not _ever_ do that again, understand?" she shouted. "Yeah, whatever," Fen said, flinching when he walked on the foot that got shot by the arrow. "Don't whatever me, we almost got killed!" "Almost, but we didn't," the boy wheezed. "Oh, don't play that game with me!" Ea said, "Almost means 'nearly', and getting nearly killed is as far as I want to go." "Look, I'm exhausted, okay? Lugging around a fifteen year old girl while fire-bending takes its toll, alright?" "Oh, calling me heavy now, are you?" "No, I'm just saying that it would be nice if you appreciated my efforts to keep us alive." Fen coughed a few times and bent over to catch his breath. Ea tried to glare at him, but for some reason it wasn't as easy as it was when she had first met him. "What, like thank you?" "Thank you would suffice." "Fine then," Ea said, crossing her arms, "thank you."

"You're welcome," Fen panted. He swallowed, but his throat was dry. He coughed a few more times, but it hurt more than when he first coughed. It felt like something was stuck. He pounded his chest with his fist in an attempt to dislodge whatever it was, but he continued coughing. As he coughed, it felt like his heart and lungs were being ripped apart, and a flame of pain burst across his throat. He tried to stop coughing, but everytime he tried, the next cough broke out of his mouth and hurt ten times more. He thought he heard Ea asking him something, but he was coughing so much he couldn't hear. His eyes closed involuntarily and his good arm folded across his chest as he kept coughing. After a few seconds, he fell on his hands and knees, still coughing.

When Fen didn't stop coughing, Ea knew that something was definitely wrong. People didn't cough for five minutes non-stop. Heck, they didn't even cough for one minute non-stop. Something was up. "Fen, are you okay?" she asked, but the boy didn't respond. He continued hacking away, and Ea grew worried. When Fen fell to his knees because of his coughing fit, Ea went to his back and smacked it a few times before halting. Blood was spreading across his back, and it seeped through his shirt. Ea looked at her hand and found it was covered with his blood. Fen's coughs grew worse, and out of the corner of her eye she could see dark stuff splattering from his mouth. "Whoa, whoa, hold it Fen, calm down," Ea said, "you're coughing too much." Well, wasn't that obvious? Ea said to herself. Ignoring the blood on her hand, she continued slapping the boy's back. When nothing happened, Ea gave up and went to her last resort: she gave Fen the Heimlich. It had the desired effect and he immediately stopped coughing. He clutched at his stomach instead.


	33. Chapter 33

"That was uncalled for," Fen managed to groan. "Well at least you're not coughing," Ea said pointedly. "Yeah, I don't know what happened," Fen croaked. He fingered his throat before spotting dark splotches on the ground. He wiped his mouth and was shocked to see blood on his fingers. He sat up immediately, ignoring the pain, and asked "did I do that?" "Yeah, you should've heard yourself," Ea said, "You sounded worse than a ninety-year old." "It hurt a lot," Fen said. He tried to stand up, but he was shaking so bad his leg collapsed. Ea caught him before he fell completely. "Are you crazy?" she said a little too loudly. Fen flinched and covered his ears. "Don't talk so loud," he said, "I'm getting a headache."

Ea was going to sass him, but she lowered her voice and instead said, "You just had a huge coughing fit. You're not going to be able to stand up right away." "Oh…" Fen said. He paused before continuing, "so, uh….um…." the boy faltered and Ea rolled her eyes, "What?" she asked, exasperated. "Well," the boy started again, "You caught me."

"Well duh," Ea said, "What's your point? Tell me something I don't know." "How long are you going to hold me like this?" Ea noticed the awkward way she was holding him, but didn't let on that she was uncomfortable.

(yeah, sorry, it's kinda short, but I just wanted to upload the whole story as of now, so yay! Here it is! I'll add more later….hopefully….if enough people like it :P)


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